Poll! What do you use in your X-BOSOZ or BOSOZ for Volume Control and Input Selector?

[promitheus]

Russ that looks great.

What would be perfect is a complete solution for preamp control.
Volume relay control and input mute relay control.
LCD or simple led display all controlled with one PIC Microcontroller.
A universal solution would be the best so you could use it with any kind of preamp.

[Russ White]

Thanks Man,

The idea is to make the project accessible to those with varying goals. Certainly our desire is to create a community driven project with features that meet our collective needs. That means it will be modular and I hope will have some appeal to those who want a simple basic knob based attenuator solution as well as to those of us who might like a more full featured remote and LCD type controller interface. I intend to make make this a key focus even in relation to our source selector project. The two will indeed meld together very well. All will be open to the public in terms of design and technology. Implimentation is left up to the user, but I will provide a lot to get people started including a nice functional controller. Nothting I have done here is new, I have not invented anything at all, and I intend to give full attribution to those I have learned from as they have done as well.

I just finished my attenuator caculator today it is much more than a simple spreadsheet, but it couldn't be much simpler to use. You just iput your desired resolution in db and the number of steps along with your desisred output impedance and the application spits out correct E96 (1%) resistror values for you, which if you run through SPICE will get you a true logaritmic (not anti-log) curve. You do not need to supply the resistor values at all, you are given them

Use whatever resistors you like, but we will likely supply Dales(RN60s) with our kits, but it is early in design yet and that has yet to be determined. I am not going to get into the "which resistor sounds better than what" debate as that is just nuts.

The PCBs are still a work in progress but coming along nicely. I have a basic prototype, but a more "final" version will lkely be done by the end of the week (real job schedule permitting) and based on that Brian and I will see what we can do.

Anyway, I think this type of attenuation fills a niche quite nicely, works like the best mechanical stepped attenuators (actually in many ways better) but with more resolution. I know it is exactly what I was looking for with my XBOSOZ. I think it is an ideal match. You could easily use it on input or on output as some like to do. Constant output impedance is much more critical than imput impedance, which is why this solution is much better than an ordinary pot. Output impedance can be as low as 1K while still maintaining high enough input impedance for most any source, and certainly input impedance can easily be adjusted.

Anway it is an extremely exciting project and I think the most significant addition to my audio chain yet.

Cheers!
Russ

[promitheus]

Then keep up the good work.
IT all sounds fantastic and cant wait to see more.

[jleaman]

Have you ever seen the little tine dale resistors I can post a pic of them on a board that i got off a guy on here ..? They are pretty small..

j'

[Magura]

Originally posted by steenoe
What the heck, take a look at my friends
totally crazy volume control
http://www.briangt.com/gallery/magur...uator/pict0001 Can you spot the lighter in there

Steen

http://www.briangt.com/gallery/magura-40stepattenuator

This shows the project from a more informative angle



Magura

[promitheus]

I have seen that before, its absolutely crazy.
That would cost a fortune.

[DaveM]

It would only cost a fortune if you have to pay for machining. When you own the tools, it mearly takes tons of time.

[analogair]

Magura
How many kilo's of Silver did you put into that spectacular piece of craftmanship ?

[jleaman]

Probably about as much silver that is in this cable that im starting to sell and make

3 hours later and i have a pair of 4 foot cable's nice clean sound, Better than the cheap cables i have been using.

[Magura]

Originally posted by DaveM
It would only cost a fortune if you have to pay for machining. When you own the tools, it mearly takes tons of time.

Originally posted by analogair
Magura
How many kilo's of Silver did you put into that spectacular piece of craftmanship ?

You are patly wrong Dave. The cost of the materials turned out pretty hefty as well. Just add the price of half a kilogram of silver, a couple of full ceramic bearings, etc.

Materials alone are at least 500 USD, most likely a lot more, I try not to do the math


Magura