Volume pots for solid state amps, Ohms?

[Less Opinion]

I am in need of a volume control for my NAP 140 project. I am finding a wide variation in the pots used, in terms of resistance values what would be a good middle of the road ohm rating for use with solid state amps and my project in particular? Less

 

[Mooly]

A couple of things to consider. The value of the pot (its marked value) appears as a load to the equipment feeding it. For modern solid state gear, driving a load of a couple of k ohms and above is no problem and so that brings us neatly to an empirical value of 10k as a suitable value that works well in most cases. The other problem with higher values is noise and also the way the resistance of the pot forms a first order R/C filter with the capacitance it sees on the wiper. In other words using to high a value can slightly degrade the high frequency response.

This is a good resource,
Potentiometers (Beginners' Guide to Pots)

 

[ashok]

Usually 10K or 20 K . Basically to keep resistor induced noise as low as possible and these loads are no problem for solid state devices. If you are talking about line level circuits ( like 1 or 2 V from the source ) you can even go up to 50 K or 100K without an audible problem......unless you need to stick your ear next to the tweeter to hear hiss ! Higher the value , lower the distortion and higher noise ( though not really audible in high signal level systems) .

Just saw Mooly's post . Yes HF can be affected due to capacitance in high Z pots. But you can simulate all this and decide what you want. If you just want to get on with it then 10 to 20 K is a good place to start.