Quote:
Originally Posted by
francisdemarte 
Okie I'll bite. How do you do this?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/318321/shunt-pot-volume-control
Post #8 from dsavitsk.
If you dont have transformer coupled inputs just imagine that the amp is hooked straight to a balanced source.
The advantages to the shunted balanced pot are that you get better phase matching, save a few dollars, and have much better availability & selection options. The disadvantages are that you loose a few db of gain and people automatically associate 2 deck pots with inferiorly ended* amplifiers. IMO Most amps have too much gain, and a quick glance at the schematic shows that the amp is balanced from end to end.
If your amp has a differential front end there is a nifty way to hook up the shunt resistors for a single ended source so that you ground the non-driven input properly rather than running it through the pot like everyone else does. If you want to get really fancy you can use different shunt resistors for different inputs to compensate for different source voltages without ever touching the knob except because of recording levels. The shunted 2-deck pot is a very powerful circuit element.
*inferiorly ended - if we want what we say, and dont want what we say we dont, what is "not balanced"? What we dont want of course. Why dont we want it? Because balanced is superior and single ended is inferior. After that its a quick play on the phrase "single ended" to "inferiorly ended".
