[NelsonVandal]

This inevitable little lump has annoyed me far to often. The difference between channels can be as much as 20 % at half volume, and that's where the volume mostly is. 20 % is very audible.

... but I've found a cure for it. Set the volume at half and add a resistor on the louder channel from the potentiometers output to ground to get a perfect balance. I know this lowers the input impedance and alters the logarithmic curve, but I think this is far less audible.

 

[Tridacnid]

Why not just replace it?

 

[compuryan]

yeah, they're really quite inexpensive.

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tridacnid /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why not just replace it?

Unless they are hand-selected the replacement is just as likely to be flawed.

But they are small

and its a nifty solution to a problem.

A shunted linear pot (to fake a log curve with a linear pot) may also give better channel matching, although it also appears as a variable input impedance.

 

[IEATTEFLON]

I had a repeating problem with the right channel being louder than the left. These little pots are crap. I wish they were modular so you can take a bunch of them apart and better match them.

 

[NelsonVandal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod /img/forum/go_quote.gif Unless they are hand-selected the replacement is just as likely to be flawed.

You're damned right. That's what happened. The replacement was just as bad

.

 

[Navyblue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IEATTEFLON /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a repeating problem with the right channel being louder than the left. These little pots are crap. I wish they were modular so you can take a bunch of them apart and better match them.

You could use two left or two right channels.

 

[rembrant]

OMG this totally happens to me every time. I haven't built that many amps yet but every pot I have tried to use so far has been garbage. I'm sure there are good ones out there but damn if I'm gonna spend more on the pot than the amp. So far I have had some success by going to radio shack and getting their dual audio taper and testing it in the store with my meter. I went through four of them last time I was there. Yea, those guys hate me now.

Whats even worse is they tape up the blister pack and hang it back on the rod. So if your searching for pots in Radioshack, just skip the ones that have been opened.

 

[wolf18t]

Why not use Alps blue velvet? They're not that expensive.

 

[rembrant]

$20-$30 is too much for an amp that costs around $20. Even those aren't guaranteed to be perfect.

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

or use a Panny EVJ??

 

[IEATTEFLON]

Although I like the sound from panasonic evj's better than the alps, their accuracy sucks quite a bit also. Lets just say out of 100 pieces, only 9 were acceptable. I search quite a bit for tiny modular pots but none seem to exist. These cheap pots all seemed to be designed for car or home stereos where the matching isnt as noticable or important compared to direct headphone listening.