SEX 4, no volume pot????
- Thread starter Todd R
- Start date
wolfhill138
New member
Also would like to know if there's a straightforward way to incorporate volume control
Part of the tradeoff of all that extra power in the SEX 4 is that the Miller capacitance of the first stage is quite a bit higher than all previous SEX amps. If you just tack on a 100K pot between the input jacks and the first gain stage, you will create a variable low pass filter that will wreak havoc on the high frequency response of the amp depending on where the volume control is positioned.
The other alternative was to go with a much lower impedance volume pot, but those will tend to load down your source components which also isn't optimal.
It has gotten quite rare that a desktop amp like the SEX amp makes use of its volume control in contemporary applications, so ditching the volume pot isn't particularly controversial. If you'd like to add one, you could drill some holes in either the wood base or the chassis plate and install a 10K volume pot. It is an eXperimenters' amp after all...
The other alternative was to go with a much lower impedance volume pot, but those will tend to load down your source components which also isn't optimal.
It has gotten quite rare that a desktop amp like the SEX amp makes use of its volume control in contemporary applications, so ditching the volume pot isn't particularly controversial. If you'd like to add one, you could drill some holes in either the wood base or the chassis plate and install a 10K volume pot. It is an eXperimenters' amp after all...
Paul Joppa
Moderator
The least expensive and easiest preamp is probably the Schitt SYS. It's passive - basically a 10K potentiometer and a switch - and lists for $49.
