[dd3mon]

This is kind of a random question that hit me this evening (half random, and half looking into the future at a crazy over the top PPA preamp/headamp). Has anyone tried more than one kind of stepped attenuator in the same amp? There are a few common ones with great reputations (Goldpoint, dact, etc) - and prices can vary significantly. Just wondering if anyone has compared them to find out which is really better.

Also, has HeadRoom ever sold it's stepped attenuator separetly? Theirs looks impressive (and expensive) - wondering how it stands up to the other popular SA's.

-dd3mon

 

[Jupiter]

Quote:

Originally posted by dd3mon Also, has HeadRoom ever sold it's stepped attenuator separetly?

Yes, look here.

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jupiter Yes, look here.

Very cool! Anyone ever bought one?

 

[BoyElroy]

I honestly don't know if there is that much difference between well made stepped attenuators. I've been using a DACT CT2 for a while and prior to that, have used a no-name japanese-sourced stepped attenuator as well as a Sanken series attenuator. While there was a large difference between the stepped/series attenuators and my Alps pot when used in my preamp, I was not able to reliably tell the difference between the various attenuators. Even the series attenuator sounded much, much better than the Alps and sounded so much like my DACT that the two were virtually indistinguishable.

I would venture to guess that the biggest differences between attenuators boils down to materials selection and construction, not necessarily significant variations in sound quality.

 

[Squalish]

Have you compared ladder and series types?

2x the number of decks, up to 1/23rd the number of solder joints and resistors in the signal path.

 

[BoyElroy]

Hey Squalish,


Yes, I have compared the two in both active and passive circuits. I had a hard/impossible time differentiating between the two in my main home setup.

Maybe its possible to hear differences in an ultra-high end system (i.e. Wilson Watts/Revel Salon/Krell/ML) but in my own midrange system consisting of a McCormack DNA1 dlxe amp and Apogee Stage speakers, the series and ladder attenuators were almost identical.

This doesn't surprise me that much in that both types of attenuators are passive components. If you solder all the joints properly and use high quality resistors, there should be minimal signal degradation in either type.

 

[hadron]

I can only speculate at this point, but any comparison between stepped attenuators should be well within the last couple percentage points of improvement. For me, the number of steps and the dB range covered is a much more important consideration.

I'm just about to place an order for one of the TKD models, 40 steps provides a significantly finer grain adjustment over the 24 step models.