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Really simple passive pre?

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Don't forget, the quality of your pot matters ;) (seriously though, it does) I've tried out multiple different pots, alps blue being worst, cheap ebay stepped, tocos cosmos better, Khozmo shunt pot better still + others. Tocos and Khozmo pres are the ones I still have here in use. Surprised me the difference actually, especially the alps blue - swapping in the tocos for that was literally like lifting the proverbial veil, and again, Khozmo better still (at a price though)
 
I've got a Stereo Coffee LDR made by Richard (Awkward....) which is great; remote control; battery op, lovely perspex front.
 
foxwelljsly said:
On reflection, I've had stepped attenuators and don't much care for notches in my volume control, so would like one with a decent ALPs pot.
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I’ve got a 64-position relay Khozmo, and in all honesty I find the physical action of jabbing the remote button covers any perception of hearing step changes if that makes any kind of sense.

(Also I find the clattering of the relays oddly soothing, but I’m sure that’s a personal peculiarity.)
 
Marchbanks said:
I’ve got a 64-position relay Khozmo, and in all honesty I find the physical action of jabbing the remote button covers any perception of hearing step changes if that makes any kind of sense.

(Also I find the clattering of the relays oddly soothing, but I’m sure that’s a personal peculiarity.)
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I had a Khozmo for a bit and did not care for the notched volume control one bit, it's also the one thing I don't like about the Quad 34. I like to arrive at earth shattering volume in a smooth manner. More importantly, it can be difficult to get volume where you want it at the lower end of the scale if you have sources or programme material with high gain.
 
Tony L said:
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Here’s one I made. A TKD pot, tupperware container and some nice fancy cloth covered solid-core wire. It sounds superb, within a very, very short distance of my highly sought after Audio Synthesis stepped attenuator passive preamps (I have a Passion and ProPassion).
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Excellent, you`ve sandwiched it all in beautifully.
 
James Evans said:
Don't forget, the quality of your pot matters ;) (seriously though, it does) I've tried out multiple different pots, alps blue being worst, cheap ebay stepped, tocos cosmos better, Khozmo shunt pot better still + others. Tocos and Khozmo pres are the ones I still have here in use. Surprised me the difference actually, especially the alps blue - swapping in the tocos for that was literally like lifting the proverbial veil, and again, Khozmo better still (at a price though)
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How would you characterise the improvements between these?
 
foxwelljsly said:
How would you characterise the improvements between these?
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There was a thread about it, I can't believe it was 7 years ago! (need to get a life)

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/volume-pots.169368/

Thankfully it seems it wasn't just my ears hearing the differences.

I suppose a quick summary is differences in transparency, and also on a technical level, channel balance. I have two 2 in, 1 out passives here at the moment, one using the tocos, the other the khozmo. I recently rebuilt them both into new cases actually and was using the tocos while redoing the khozmo. Putting the khozmo back in the system things just sounded clearer, hard to describe really. The tocos in turn was an improvement on the alps blue (7 years ago that I came to that conclusion though!)
 
James Evans said:
There was a thread about it, I can't believe it was 7 years ago! (need to get a life)

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/volume-pots.169368/

Thankfully it seems it wasn't just my ears hearing the differences.

I suppose a quick summary is differences in transparency, and also on a technical level, channel balance. I have two 2 in, 1 out passives here at the moment, one using the tocos, the other the khozmo. I recently rebuilt them both into new cases actually and was using the tocos while redoing the khozmo. Putting the khozmo back in the system things just sounded clearer, hard to describe really. The tocos in turn was an improvement on the alps blue (7 years ago that I came to that conclusion though!)
Click to expand...
Cheers

I notice that the Tocos pots are no longer stocked by some retailers due to poor channel balance (I guess their primary applications don't require they are made to such tolerances).

The pot in this thing from Amazon is a £5 ALPS16 stereo pot and, I have to confess, sounds fine to me and is probably better quality than the pots in many active components.

It's so tiny, the idea of trying some long RCA cables to create a steampunk wired remote is beginning to gestate.
 
You can still get the tocos off ebay and they are v cheap just to try. I remember hificollective saying at the time I bought this one that they were going to discontinue stocking them due to the channel balance at low volume issue, but that they sounded great! I suppose two mono pots is an option and then the channel balance is all down to the user ;)
 
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