There are some nice carbon pots out there from what the reviews indicate. There are also many many plastic pots that are awesome. The channel-channel matching of anything but the very best pots is not as good as a well built stepper, but is not especially poor either: This is especially important when you consider the trend to use 2 decks of a pot to attenuate a balanced signal. Once you accept the fact that for a well built pot you will probably be spending some decent money things get interesting.
Comparing my limited selection of pots and steppers, the steppers are more likely to sound good at lower price points. The Asian steppers on ebay compare favorably with expensive pots. There are still a couple stumbling points for a stepper.
You have steps! (owned) I find myself wanting "the step between the steps" far too frequently. I personally prefer pots even with greater expense, and possibly lower SQ to steppers for this simple reason.
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Originally Posted by cotdt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The cheap carbon pots have a more analogue sound, though if you listen carefully there is some grain
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Isnt grain the typical mark of poorly reproduced digital sound? Is the sound more analog or have the transients and highs simply been dulled?
Nicer pots dont have any problems passing transients, and still sound analog when running from an analog sounding source.
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The metal film resistors are technically better (cleaner, smoother sound) but personally I prefer the sound of $1 carbon pots over $300 stepped attenuators |
Is it necessary to bring exotic steppers into this discussion? There are plenty of 24-step steppers well below the $50 mark sold ready to install
If you like the sound of carbon, thats your prerogative, why not build a stepper with carbon resistors?
[sarcasm ]I suppose you would loose the superb channel-channel tracking, silence while rotating (I know steppers make some noise while switching levels, but its not the harsh screechy hiss a cheap carbon treats you to), and the superbly accurate and consistent log curve typical of cheap carbon pots. [/sarcasm ]
In all seriousness, the reviews of the Precision electronics components (PEC) pots indicate that they are a very nice carbon pot at a pretty reasonable pricepoint. all of our builds is too nice to put a worthless carbon pot directly in the signal path.