which remote volume control.....??????

[ssmith]

I'm planning on building a DAC with integrated volume control... and am having difficulty making the final pot choice.

The condition is that the volume must have a remote facility, or else be able to be upgraded to have a remote later on... my search has narrowed down to two choices:

- Dact CT2 10 stereo pot (can have a remote unit from bentaudio.com / diycable.com added later)

- Welborne Labs (Welbornelabs.com) remote 1 stepped attenuator kit -- no knobs, just remote....

Opinions anyone? the Dact has good reviews, but some mixed too. Can't find any reviews for the Welborne unit....

thanks in advance!

[theAnonymous1]

I'm not sure if the pot in this kit is very good quality, but for the price you could always add your own.

I am having two of these sent to me so I can't comment on their quality just yet. I don't plan on using the included pot, I ordered a 6 ganged motorized ALPS pot to replace it with.

http://www.altronics.com.au/index.as...=item&id=K5026

Here is a good ALPS motor pot to replace the included one with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALPS-Potentiomet...QQcmdZViewItem

[ssmith]

If you're referring to the Welborne Labs remote kit, the volume control circuit is built into the pcb -- you don't need an external pot.

The dact option is basically a dact pot -- with the option of adding a motor and a pcb to give a remote function.

BTW thx for the bay link -- they have RK40 pots ("black beauty?") - thought they were discontinued....???

[theAnonymous1]

Sorry, I was referring to the questionable quality of the pot included with the Altrinics kit.

That seller on ebay can obviously get rare and hard to find ALPS stuff. The 6 ganged 10k pot I ordered is a custom job by ALPS and I can't seem to source it from anyone but him.

His prices are reasonable too, less than 40USD for the 6 ganged motor pot shipped to the US is one heck of a bargain.

[jamesjung21]

Sorry, I was referring to the questionable quality of the pot included with the Altrinics kit.

The pot included in this kit is one dirt-cheap quality carbon pot, but manufactured by the same manufacturer who makes those little green silvered-carbon pots (Alpha is the company's name).

If you buy this kit, I strongly suggest you to buy one of those Alps motor pots.

I got two of those black colored dual-gang Alps motorized pots, but I can't seem to get the pinout right... I followed the pinout as stated on the data sheet, but resistance seem to shift up and down

Does anybody have an experience with this pot..?

Thanks,
James

[ssmith]

Originally posted by jamesjung21

I got two of those black colored dual-gang Alps motorized pots, but I can't seem to get the pinout right... I followed the pinout as stated on the data sheet, but resistance seem to shift up and down

the bottom of this page:

http://www.diyparadise.com/charlize.html

has a pin guide for alps pot (blue type), not sure if it'll help.

[ssmith]

Originally posted by theAnonymous1
Sorry, I was referring to the questionable quality of the pot included with the Altrinics kit.

That seller on ebay can obviously get rare and hard to find ALPS stuff. The 6 ganged 10k pot I ordered is a custom job by ALPS and I can't seem to source it from anyone but him.

His prices are reasonable too, less than 40USD for the 6 ganged motor pot shipped to the US is one heck of a bargain.

my mistake -- indeed the pot on the Altrinics kits does not look so interesting.
The ebay seller is interesting... now I'm think of no remote and an RK40 'black beauty'.....! (which sadly does not appear to be available motorised).

[SRMcGee]

ssmith:

Have you considered the Dantimax (http://electronics.dantimax.dk/) or Twisted Pear (http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/) offerings?

I am in the process of building a preamp with a Dantimax remote control system but have not completed it yet. My experience to date has been with DACT CT2 attenuators, so that will be my point of comparison. Others seem pleased with the Dantimax kits.

Good luck with your hunt!

Regards,
Scott

[jamesjung21]

has a pin guide for alps pot (blue type), not sure if it'll help.

That's not the one... If my pots had only 6 pins, I would have figured out the pin out even with my eyes closed Mine has 8 pins on the SAME row which makes it difficult to figure out which is for which channel, with 2 last pins being dummy support pins...

indeed the pot on the Altrinics kits does not look so interesting.

Altronics' remote controller kit is REALLY good and accurate, and having a cheap pot doesn't mean it's bad. I would definitely choose Altronics' version if I have to make a choice between Alps' and Altronics'.

Cheers,
James

[theAnonymous1]

Hi James,

Here is a link to a somewhat confusing spec sheet for your pot.

http://avpg.business.t-online.de/PDF/RK16812MG.PDF

It has a pinout diagram, although a not so good one. Here is what I understand from the drawing.

This is with pins facing up and shaft toward you from left to right....

Pin1 : Dummy/No Contact
Pin2 : Out 1
Pin3 : Ground 1
Pin4 : Ground 2
Pin5 : Out 2
Pin6 : In 2
Pin7 : In 1
Pin8 : Dummy/No Contact

I really hope this is correct; because the pot I just purchased is the same thing only with 6 gangs instead of 2. That means I have 3 rows of 8 pins to deal with instead of 1.

Hope this helps.