[decalservice]

Hi everyone, new member here! I posted my intro in the main intro thread, and please forgive me if I shouldn't post this yet, but I was hoping for some advice. (It seems okay to do per the new member email, but I'll gladly remove if I'm mistaken)

Does anyone know of a place to buy a stereo logarithmic potentiometer with a built-in treble-cut circuit? I'm looking to mod a particular set of cans, and want to install these internally, pre-amp. (I have a 3w+3w amp with battery and charging circuit inside them).

If there's none available, then perhaps when I'm allowed to post elsewhere, I'm sure I'll be blessed to rely on y'all's expertise to build one myself. I see circuits online, but they're mostly vol/bass/mid/treble. Was hoping to just get a solitary, small stereo (stacked log pot) treble reducer / cutter. -5db or so should do the job. I'm surprised I haven't been able to find one anywhere! I'd be happy building one because I can make sure to be able to fit it inside the cans.

Cheers, and thanks for the membership!! Car restoration has taken it's toll on me as a hobby, and in mid-age I'm wanting to sell off all my rides and focus on my audio endeavors. I'm an engineer but I work in the Telecom world, mostly playing with light. Ohm's Law isn't quite as applicable here and as a consequence, I've forgotten many concepts. I can still wrangle projects together by trial and error, but not like I used to 15-20 years ago, by design and planning. I'd like to get that skill back.

 

[tomb]

Hi everyone, new member here! I posted my intro in the main intro thread, and please forgive me if I shouldn't post this yet, but I was hoping for some advice. (It seems okay to do per the new member email, but I'll gladly remove if I'm mistaken)

Does anyone know of a place to buy a stereo logarithmic potentiometer with a built-in treble-cut circuit? I'm looking to mod a particular set of cans, and want to install these internally, pre-amp. (I have a 3w+3w amp with battery and charging circuit inside them).

If there's none available, then perhaps when I'm allowed to post elsewhere, I'm sure I'll be blessed to rely on y'all's expertise to build one myself. I see circuits online, but they're mostly vol/bass/mid/treble. Was hoping to just get a solitary, small stereo (stacked log pot) treble reducer / cutter. -5db or so should do the job. I'm surprised I haven't been able to find one anywhere! I'd be happy building one because I can make sure to be able to fit it inside the cans.

Cheers, and thanks for the membership!! Car restoration has taken it's toll on me as a hobby, and in mid-age I'm wanting to sell off all my rides and focus on my audio endeavors. I'm an engineer but I work in the Telecom world, mostly playing with light. Ohm's Law isn't quite as applicable here and as a consequence, I've forgotten many concepts. I can still wrangle projects together by trial and error, but not like I used to 15-20 years ago, by design and planning. I'd like to get that skill back.

You should really post this in the DIY section. Probably the majority of people in this beginners section wouldn't know what a logarithmic potentiometer is.

First, believe it or not, a stereo volume control is difficult enough to find at all anymore. For instance, no one makes stacking volume controls anymore. When I was younger and first messing around with stereos in the late 60's and early 70's, that's how they came. You'd buy a potentiometer and mix and match shafts and other potentiometers and switches to get what you want. Those days are gone.

You can purchase stereo volume (logarithmic) pots from Mouser or DigiKey: Alps, Alpha, Panasonic EVJ; that's about it. The quality varies widely. The Alps is the most used, with the RK027 used in most desktops and the RK097 in most quality portables. Other pots that Alps makes can be quite bad. The Alpha and Panasonic have poor channel matching at the low and high ends. The Panasonic is mostly a plastic toy, but has been used a lot in the CMoy.

For currently available pots, you might refer to this excellent guide from Head-Fi user Tangent:
https://tangentsoft.net/audio/atten.html
The key link is to this spreadsheet:
https://tangentsoft.net/audio/misc/pot-curves.zip
In that spreadsheet, Tangent tests more or less the best - easily available - stereo volume pots on the market.

Beyond that, there are other stereo pots that can be purchased through various DIY suppliers. PartsConnexion is probably the most prevalent "audiophile" parts dealer. You will find some offerings from TKD (acronym is intentional, it is not the same as TDK recording tapes). Other than that. you have to step (pardon the pun) up to stepped attenuators.

As for the treble reducer, that's essentially an RC circuit that has to be built to provide a cutoff at the desired frequency. The issue with those, especially if what I interpret in your writing means you're trying to install all of this stuff inside a headphone(!), is that all of the parts in the RC circuit that forms the frequency cutoff are directly in the signal path. That usually means exotic (and BIG) capacitors, in order to avoid an undesirable effect on sound quality - and tone.