Searching for volume contol ic

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I am looking for multi channel volume contol, to be specific a 6 channel volume contol for ht projects. I know PT 2258 can do it, bit its i2c interface. And this ic is so hard to find.

What i need is analog interface using trim pots/ volume control. Like single volume control for all six channels..?? Does anything like that exist??

Or my another thought is.. If some ic exist which can contol gain by using the voltage values in some refernce pin.. Eg changes gain from 0db to 70/100db when voltage at some pin chnages from 0- 5/10 volts, i can use it too.. No problem even if the ic is single channel or multiple channel, we can still loop the voltage lines from single source .

Does anybody have any idea?? This is like real headache while making analog chips based ht. Please dont say you can do it with cd series analoge switches and resistors. I am looking for 1 or 2 chip solutions.
 
Have you ever used them for audio?

Yep- they make excellent post-amplifiers on my DACs, after passive I/V and passive filtering. Not the absolute best subjective dynamics mind (classA biassing helps) but very decent, especially at the prices on Taobao.

The AD605 being only 5V supplied and having 36dB or so of gain only just meets the noise requirements for RBCD in balanced mode.
 
Yep- they make excellent post-amplifiers on my DACs, after passive I/V and passive filtering. Not the absolute best subjective dynamics mind (classA biassing helps) but very decent, especially at the prices on Taobao.

The AD605 being only 5V supplied and having 36dB or so of gain only just meets the noise requirements for RBCD in balanced mode.

OK, I know the noise is barely right for audio if you can get them to work good.
 
I've used National Semi, Dallas and ADI digital pots for various applications (including filters). Most of the time "bit-banging" with a PIC or Stamp, but also with Arduino.

A little bit strayed from the topic -- I just happened to see this datasheet on a newish device from TI: http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/tidu034/tidu034.pdf This is a physically controlled pot.

Wheww thats ti design is absolutely out of our scope of requirements.. Unless we have some alien ears. Also we cant use that design for our multi channel requirements.. Take a look at the pot lines. We cant make it work for multichannel ( anything above 2 channels) design. Unless we have a pot with 6 seperate variable resistor links. Besides in my opinion, this one is absolutely no use for audio purposes, because it just add extra components and chips for just replacing a pot that can be directly connected to input of an amp.
 
Ya.. This one seems perfect but can u provide more details and links?

has its quircks but managable.
DIY Voltage-Controlled Amplifier | HackMe

you can read more about it here, and solutions for overcomming its "interesting" charactereistics. in real life its okay for most stuff.
an alternative can be some light sensitive resistor and a led pointed at it in an enclosed tube to form a part of a voltage divider, it sortha reacts slower, but if you don't need to rapidly change the volume it works nicely.
the bonus is with the led+photoresistor setup is, that you can use whatever crapy pot you can get your hands on. literally.
as it can't "crackle" even if the pot is an utterly junk quality.
and its not in the signal path in any ways.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
I have very good experiences with the CS3318. It's 8 channel and the specs run circles around anything else that has been mentioned here. It's only one chip so once you have the serial interface running you can do anything.
The 3318 runs on +/-9V analog but there is also a +/-5V version with reduced analog output of course, but the same stratospheric performance.

It's not VCA or such but a resistor ladder network, actually, like a stepped attenuator with 0.5dB or 0.25dB steps.
Jeff Rowland used it in some of his top amplifiers.

The VCA's may look nice but check the tracking - that may not be as good as you want!

Check it out!

Jan
 
Last edited:
I am looking for multi channel volume contol, to be specific a 6 channel volume contol for ht projects. I know PT 2258 can do it, bit its i2c interface. And this ic is so hard to find.

What i need is analog interface using trim pots/ volume control. Like single volume control for all six channels..?? Does anything like that exist??

Or my another thought is.. If some ic exist which can contol gain by using the voltage values in some refernce pin.. Eg changes gain from 0db to 70/100db when voltage at some pin chnages from 0- 5/10 volts, i can use it too.. No problem even if the ic is single channel or multiple channel, we can still loop the voltage lines from single source .

Does anybody have any idea?? This is like real headache while making analog chips based ht. Please dont say you can do it with cd series analoge switches and resistors. I am looking for 1 or 2 chip solutions.

Have you thought about using a 4-channel VCA? The gain/attenuation of channel can be separately controlled via a control voltage (CV). The CV can simply be a given via a potentiometer that is connected between two voltages (e.g. 3V and ground, or 2V and -1V, etc.) depending on the range of gain adjustment you want to achieve. Also, you can trim each channel by using a summing amplifier and combining a trim control voltage offset for each channel with a main voltage that will be used on all channels. This gives you a trimmable 4-channel volume control with an analog control interface. Channel-to-channel tracking is very good, likely much better than you could achieve with multiple single gain control units. The ICs only costs a few dollars each, not $25 like some multichannel digital volume control chips. I designed and built a 4-channel volume control (not with trimmable channels, however) and it works pretty well. Distortion and noise are not as low as a digital volume control, but on the other hand the analog volume control runs off of dual 15V rails and can output high analog voltages. This is something that many digital gain stages can not do by themselves.

This part used to be available as SSM2164. Cool Audio bought the rights to MFG it (it seems) and is making it as V2164. Info below:

Purchase here or through the MFG:
Coolaudio V2164D Quad Voltage-Controlled Amplifier

Cool Audio (MFG) product page:
:: Official website of Coolaudio Semiconductors (COOLAUDIO International Limited) - www.coolaudio.com
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.