[eric343]

FYI: I opened one of the pots from Angela. The construction in this pic:

matches it exactly. It's a THEL with carbon-silver construction... Actually looks pretty good.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

freaking hell, how many steps does it have erix? You put one in an amp yet? How does it sound like while it's turning? What are the dimensions again?

 

[Joe Lau]

Quote:

Originally posted by erix Well I popped off the back of one of these pots (Thanx JMT!) and was surprised to find it stuffed with resistors. That's right, 1/8W resistors, wired in series (or so it looks like) - is it a tiny stepped attenuator?! The resistor bodies are different colors - not the stripes, the body that the stripes are painted on. As if they scrounged around for the right values. On the meter they measure DEAD-ON between channels - at least to one decimal place. Better by far than any I've worked with before in my limited experience. I'll post some pics of it tomorrow. Kinda sloppy soldering but hell, I don't think I could do much better... ok, erix

Oh ! I think it may be made by a China Manufacturer in China. I had one sample on hand. It mark "SoundWell" not Alps .
It's parts no is RH2702 A503 just same marking convention as seen in Ebay ! So It think it is possible Immitation. Also it structure is not same as Angela ?

It structure may copy from Panasonics but marking is depend on customers need

 

[Possum]

I just had to see what erix was talking about, so I opened up one of the pots I received from the same seller. It looks pretty neat, and I might actually like these better than the type with conductive carbon/plastic discs if it means there's better matching between channels.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

STEPPED ATTENUATOR!!! JESUS!

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Originally posted by phidauex Maybe if they ARE imitation, the imitation is superior! These are the killer pots that alps is trying to hide from us! They don't want to admit that this rag-tag chinese operation has produced a superior pot! As soon as you get them, hide them. Don't let anyone in the audio biz know you bought them, or you'll be blacklisted! But after you give them a little taste, feel their smooth, yet firm tracking, their quality construction, their heft, like a piece of jewelry, you'll come crawling back for more imitations! But do your transactions under the table, cash only! Don't let anyone know.. shh.. *snip* peace, phidauex

What foresight

 

[erix]

I brought one in to photograph today and you beat me to it!

Yours looks alot neater than mine - I guess it's a crapshoot!

ok,
erix

 

[ffish]

Hi all,

Damn this is getting interesting. This text, from the partsconnexion.com newsletter, might shed some light on these, too.


Quote:

"Alps "Black Beauty" 21-step Dual/Stereo Series Attenuator $39.95 (US) For years, Alps was "the" name in conductive plastic potentiometers. Used by countless consumer and pro-audio companies, Alps was the market leader. However, they no longer make conductive plastic pots at all. The "Black Beauty" pot was so called due to its case color and size - differentiating it from their other, smaller, "Blue Velvet" potentiometer series. However, Alps also used this same case style to build a special order "series attenuator" as well, primarily for the pro audio market. pcX was lucky enough to find a large NOS quantity of these RARE controls. Substantially superior sonically to any pot, this series attenuator has 21-steps, a 60dB range and superior Channel-to-Channel tracking. This control should be compared to many other discrete series attenuators at well over $100 US, making our price of $39.95 US an absolute best buy! Anyone looking for a stereo volume control between 50K and 250K, should consider this part!"

--daryl

 

[Possum]

erix,

Sorry about that - I saw that you intended to post a picture, but I just had to use the new digital camera I got

(I'll be posting pictures any opportunity I get). Maybe you should take a picture of yours anyway to show how much the quality of assembly varies. I have four more of these pots that I didn't open, so one or some of those could be worse. Regardless of how neat it is, as long as the signal gets through, I'd say these were worth the $6 each.

 

[eric343]

[edited out evidence of my absent-mindendess]
Possum: I've been following this thread from the beginning, I'd just forgotten. OOPS!

 

[Possum]

Did you even read through the thread? The first post has all the information you need to e-mail the seller and order these for yourself at great prices and shipping. Shipping is cheap and fast enough that you don't need someone else to import these for you.

 

[Joe Lau]

I had take a Photo of Pot same as (Or simulair) as seen in Ebay but it is not made by Alps. It is made in China and selling in Low price. Quality acceptable but Mechenical feel is not My will !

 

[evilcthul]

The pots look very similar... Note the resistor/soldering style and the fact that they're mounted on exactly the same style of plastic washer...

Interesting.... If we could somehow get Joseph Lau an "ALPS" pot he could verify if it was Soundwell...

 

[Toe]

Interesting that the two labels are almost identical. Anyone have any more pics of pots from either brand with the same type of label? I'd like to know which of them (Alps or Soundwell) normally uses labels like that.

I'm siding with those who are thinking "Who cares if it's an actual Alps or not?" A mini stepped attenuator for six bucks doesn't seem like a bad find, I certainly don't care how something "feels", I care about how it "sounds". And most of us here could replace the resistors if we so desired, so how much do we really need to be concerned about reliability?

 

[evilcthul]

It's not the resistors that would be unreliable... I would say it would be the switching mechanism which would perhaps deteriorate over time.

Is this stepped attenuator make before break?