Stepped Attenuator Modification

[Bill_P]

I bought some cheap DACT knock-off attenuators from an Ebay seller in Hong Kong for $10 each. They are stereo series attenuators containing twenty resistors per channel. My amplifier uses two separate volume controls for the two channels so only one section of each attenuator was used.

I would have preferred to use a ladder attenuator rather than series and the two poles in the switch allowed conversion to a ladder type as shown in the picture.

The original resistors were removed with two soldering irons and discarded. New resistors were "tombstone mounted" and connected with a fine strand of silver plated OFC wire. The schematic shows how everything is connected. I think there is a bit more clarity to the sound with fewer resistors in the signal path.