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Reduce Output Volume

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I have a Jolida 302b amp that has been modified I bought six years ago. I just started to get into modifying my equipment. So I barely know what I'm doing. I decided to change the volume pot for the stock to a Goldpoint 24-step attenuator. I read on a site the stock one was 50K so I ordered one. Well when I opened up the machine it was a 100K pot. Will this make much of a difference? It is now louder with the knob point to the same area. Regardless of the pot I would only turn it up maybe a 1/4 before it is plenty loud. I'm in a fairly small room 6 feet away from the speakers. With the new attenuator I move it up 3 steps and it's loud enough at night through the CD Player. Through the computer I can get make finer adjustment by adjusting the computer output volume. Is there something I can do that will reduce the the level so that I will turn up the pot 7 to 10 to before it starts getting too loud. I'm think if I put a resistor somewhere that may work.
 
schematic here.

Volume control is a basic potential divider, so the 50k should not make a difference in real world application.

Only thing i can imagine is that the stepper is not a log or pseudo-log device...

If its really bugging you and you NEVER use 10, you could put a fixed resistor in the input leg - say, 20k... That will ensure you can never get to more than 5/7 of full volume as well as quietening down everything else (but by a smaller ratio)...
 
I was digging around the goldpoint's website and I found a page that had some resistor recommendations to reduce the volume. It looks like the first 5 steps move from up by 10 dB, then 6 db, 5 db, 4 db, and then once past 10 o'clock it moves up in 2 db steps. So I will drop it down by 20 db and I will have a little better control on the volume.
 
One possibility is just substituting the first two tubes with lower gain equivalents. 5751 for V1, maybe, and E180CC or 5965A for V2. Why attenuate more when you can just drop the unneccessary gain...

I've used both E180CC and 5965A in place of a ECC81/12AT7. It's basically almost a drop in replacement in most circuits, but has lower gain. The brightest side to this is that cheap NOS is available. Plus you don't have to heat the soldering iron at all.
 
One possibility is just substituting the first two tubes with lower gain equivalents. 5751 for V1, maybe, and E180CC or 5965A for V2. Why attenuate more when you can just drop the unneccessary gain...

I've used both E180CC and 5965A in place of a ECC81/12AT7. It's basically almost a drop in replacement in most circuits, but has lower gain. The brightest side to this is that cheap NOS is available. Plus you don't have to heat the soldering iron at all.

"lower gain equivalents"?

if it's lower gain it's not "equivalent"

The gain is necessary in that amp to have the intended amount of negative feedback. The input stage is a SRPP directly coupled to the phase inverter with tuned load resistors. I would expect the operating point of this circuit to shift drastically if different type tubes are used. I wouldn't change this without recalculating the first 2 stages op points and the NFB. Changing the gain of the first 2 stages won't change the gain of the amp that much, but it will change the distortion.

It sounds like your attenuator steps are the problem. The small steps should be at the low volume end of the range, or there should be uniform steps throughout.
 
I'm not sure. Well the version I have the person that I purchased it modified the balance knob to control level of feedback. I'm guess that it's global.. The attenuator steps change as you go from 6 o'clock to 5 o'clock. First notch is -64 db, then -54 db, then -46, -43, -40, -38, etc. So add the resistors should reduce it by 15 db and then the change will be almost get me past the first two notches so then gain will be a lot smaller going up. Guess that it will get my normal play level around 11-12 o'clock and when I want it a little louder it will be around 1-2 o'clock. Thanks for everyone's help.
 
First, is the new pot the correct taper (audio or log but not linear)? If you really got the wrong pot and got a linear taper one, you can add resistors which will make it non-linear and closer to what you need. Otherwise, consider a 'range' switch for the volume control, which would probably really be nice.
 
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