volume pot value

[gh0st]

This may be a road reasonably well travelled, but I've not been able to divine a consensus.

Having finished all other projects, I'm going to rebuild the input of my Crack, and I'm wondering: if I can be certain (which I can) that my source can drive a low impedance load without breaking a sweat, are there any potential sonic gains to be made by choosing one value pot over another? All opinions welcome  ;D

/dom

 

[Paul Joppa]

It's always a tradeoff. Most observers have found that a high impedance load improves the sound of most sources, including those that "can drive a low impedance load without breaking a sweat." But a high impedance pot is also more susceptible to picking up electrostatic fields, including hum and radio frequency interference. There are a few who claim that a low impedance level control, i.e. 600 ohms, sounds better than the same design implemented at higher impedance (say, above 10K ohms) but I have not seen anything that can claim to be a true test of this one. All these effects are quite subtle - again, within the bounds of what I have experienced myself.

 

[gh0st]

Thanks Paul. I've decided to go with a 10K for now, with a voltage divider before the pot that maintains the 10K as the source sees it.

I'll report back when it's implemented.