Subwoofers too loud when barely turned up

mfaughn · 10th March 2011, 11:30 AM

Hi,
I have both a Velodyne ULD-18 and an Inifinity SSW-210. I am feed both my amp (EL84 PP) and one or the other sub directly from my DAC (Musiland Monitor02). In both cases the subs are too loud at before you get to 2 (i.e. 8 o'clock) on the volume pot. Can anyone explain why this is so? What can I do to fix it?

Thanks,
Michael

weltersys · 10th March 2011, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfaughn

Hi,
I have both a Velodyne ULD-18 and an Inifinity SSW-210. I am feed both my amp (EL84 PP) and one or the other sub directly from my DAC (Musiland Monitor02). In both cases the subs are too loud at before you get to 2 (i.e. 8 o'clock) on the volume pot. Can anyone explain why this is so? What can I do to fix it?

Thanks,
Michael

The amps have high sensitivity/gain. You can leave them turned down low, or to use a wider range of the pot, make in line attenuators, "H" or "T" type pads depending on whether the signal is balanced or unbalanced.

The resistors for the attenuators can be simply added in line in a cord, or a separate box with in/out jacks can be made for them. It is common to build them in to an XLR "barrel" connector, and they are available in a variety of values commercially.

There are on-line calculators for various attenuation values, to make the level sound about half as loud requires 10 dB attenuation.

mfaughn · 10th March 2011, 03:17 PM

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to make in-line attenuators, probably fixed value. To do this accurately don't I need to know something about the input impedance of the amp in order to decide on the total resistance to use in those calculators? At any rate, seems like I could safely start with 10K and see how that goes, yes?

weltersys · 10th March 2011, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfaughn

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to make in-line attenuators, probably fixed value. To do this accurately don't I need to know something about the input impedance of the amp in order to decide on the total resistance to use in those calculators? At any rate, seems like I could safely start with 10K and see how that goes, yes?

You should be able to find the input and output impedance of your units in their specification/user manuals, available on line.

Otherwise, 10K, 100K, whatever it takes

.

If you have a couple pots laying around, you could tweek with them until you find a setting that works, then substitute fixed resistors of the same value as the pots read.

Cokewithlime · 10th March 2011, 04:47 PM

Are you using the RCA output from the DAC ?? If you are and the output level is too high then just use the DAC headphone output which will much lower level.

Be careful which headphone output you use, on that model of DAC there are two headphone jacks one is low level output and the other is high level output.

mfaughn · 10th March 2011, 04:50 PM

Duh, headphone out...I didn't think of that. I do understand though that the HP amp on the Monitor02 isn't that great. Might not matter that much though for feeding a sub as it would for HF.

Cokewithlime · 05:25 PM

It's worth a quick try, and as you say for use with your sub the quality should be fine.

And if you are not happy with the HP approach and don't like soldering you could always just do a "Y" off the DAC RCAs and then buy some cheap in-line RCA to RCA attenuators to feed the sub(s) like these they are available in 1db, 3db and 6db of attenuation versions

mfaughn · 10th March 2011, 06:27 PM

I'm about to go try it. Soldering is fine though...just fixed the VC lead wires on a JBL 035ti.

mfaughn · 10th March 2011, 06:47 PM

nope, doesn't work using HP outs.

Cokewithlime · 10th March 2011, 07:36 PM

You should hear something ?? Did you try both HP jacks ?

10th March 2011, 11:30 AM	#1
mfaughn diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Sylva, NC	Subwoofers too loud when barely turned up Hi, I have both a Velodyne ULD-18 and an Inifinity SSW-210. I am feed both my amp (EL84 PP) and one or the other sub directly from my DAC (Musiland Monitor02). In both cases the subs are too loud at before you get to 2 (i.e. 8 o'clock) on the volume pot. Can anyone explain why this is so? What can I do to fix it? Thanks, Michael

10th March 2011, 05:14 PM	#7
Cokewithlime diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Toronto	It's worth a quick try, and as you say for use with your sub the quality should be fine. And if you are not happy with the HP approach and don't like soldering you could always just do a "Y" off the DAC RCAs and then buy some cheap in-line RCA to RCA attenuators to feed the sub(s) like these they are available in 1db, 3db and 6db of attenuation versions Last edited by Cokewithlime; 10th March 2011 at 05:25 PM.

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10th March 2011, 03:17 PM	#3
mfaughn diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Sylva, NC	Thanks for the reply. I'd like to make in-line attenuators, probably fixed value. To do this accurately don't I need to know something about the input impedance of the amp in order to decide on the total resistance to use in those calculators? At any rate, seems like I could safely start with 10K and see how that goes, yes?

10th March 2011, 04:47 PM	#5
Cokewithlime diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Toronto	Are you using the RCA output from the DAC ?? If you are and the output level is too high then just use the DAC headphone output which will much lower level. Be careful which headphone output you use, on that model of DAC there are two headphone jacks one is low level output and the other is high level output.

10th March 2011, 04:50 PM	#6
mfaughn diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Sylva, NC	Duh, headphone out...I didn't think of that. I do understand though that the HP amp on the Monitor02 isn't that great. Might not matter that much though for feeding a sub as it would for HF.

10th March 2011, 06:27 PM	#8
mfaughn diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Sylva, NC	I'm about to go try it. Soldering is fine though...just fixed the VC lead wires on a JBL 035ti.

10th March 2011, 06:47 PM	#9
mfaughn diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Sylva, NC	nope, doesn't work using HP outs.

10th March 2011, 07:36 PM	#10
Cokewithlime diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Toronto	You should hear something ?? Did you try both HP jacks ?

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