[daltonlanny]

Hello,

I recently bought a 2 board Beta 22, with separate Sigma 22 power supply, off the Headfi classifieds.
It sounded really great, until the right circuit board blew out, after I had the resistors and caps changed out to increase the gain from 2x to 8x.
Fortunately, I am getting two brand new fully calibrated and tested circuit boards from YBM Audio soon.
The volume potentiometer that came with the unit is the ALPS RK27112A 50K blue velvet unit.
A couple of friends recommended that while I am in the process of changing out the circuit boards, that I should upgrade the volume pot to a TKD 2CP-2511 50K pot.
What do you think?
Do you think the much more expensive TKD is worth it, sonically, over the ALPS?
If so, in what ways?
I cannot afford a stepped attenuator.
Any opinions or info on ALPS vs TKD would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[tomb]

Hello,

I recently bought a 2 board Beta 22, with separate Sigma 22 power supply, off the Headfi classifieds.
It sounded really great, until the right circuit board blew out, after I had the resistors and caps changed out to increase the gain from 2x to 8x.
Fortunately, I am getting two brand new fully calibrated and tested circuit boards from YBM Audio soon.
The volume potentiometer that came with the unit is the ALPS RK27112A 50K blue velvet unit.
A couple of friends recommended that while I am in the process of changing out the circuit boards, that I should upgrade the volume pot to a TKD 2CP-2511 50K pot.
What do you think?
Do you think the much more expensive TKD is worth it, sonically, over the ALPS?
If so, in what ways?
I cannot afford a stepped attenuator.
Any opinions or info on ALPS vs TKD would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 
Well, there's this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/597201/alps-ak27-vs-noble-ap25-vs-tkd-2cp601-vs-audio-note-100k-vs-bang, but I don't put much stock into it.  Most of the proponents are known for their biases in other matters.  Also, keep in mind that the Alps is notoriously counterfeited with lackluster results.  That's one of the reasons for the mixed reviews (or bad reviews in that thread).  A person buys one of those from ebay, has horrible results and hates Alps from then on.  That's a great injustice, but explains a lot.
 
1. The only volume pot ever used by AMB on the B22 is the Alps RK27.
2. The only volume pot ever used by Tangent in desktop-sized amps is the Alps RK27.
3. The only volume pot ever used by dsavitsk of ECP Audio is the Alps RK27.
 
Tangent made extensive tests of the RK27 here:
http://tangentsoft.net/audio/atten.html
The important file is the excel spreadsheet here:
http://tangentsoft.net/audio/misc/pot-curves.zip
 
Anyway, buy what you want of course - but the Alps RK27 is more or less a standard for a reason.  Just be certain that you get a real one, not a fake.