Which type of attenuator (L, T, Pi) and resistor values

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If I only used foobar or a dedicated music app, maybe I'd trust it more. I mostly stream and seem to be changing services as I've yet to find the "best" one. Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Amazon Music HD, and even Spotify.
Guess I should have seen that coming. I think streaming is a great tool for discovering new (to you) music... but listening to "my" music like that? Nah. I have some custom EQ for my speakers and headphones, and when travelling some routes I regularly pass areas where I can't even get a connection for a call, not to mention all the power and cost overhead involved over a plain Rockbox'd Clip+ with a big µSD card. I dread thinking about having to replace that one, as much as I would appreciate a display bigger than a postage stamp - good players suitable for Rockbox just aren't growing on trees.
As a random test I set the computer volume at 50%, and changed usb ports for my dac and it reset the volume to 100% as it saw it as a different device. Strange, but true.
Not that strange. This seems to be the way Windows handles it by default, presumably to aid using multiple of the same kind of device. I've had to tell one of our users that they had to use the correct USB port for their printer to work, too. (It was a retirement gig for a little old Brother laser with some life left in it.)
You lost me a bit here.

The output/power amplifier should have an input impedance of 10K, while the atom has a rated output impedance of 0.1 ohm.

I thought the rule of thumb was low output impedance --> high input impedance. I've seen the "rule of thumb" as anywhere from 8x to 20x between devices.
All very much correct.

It's just that this is not the only consideration. Output impedance by itself says fairly little about the output's ability to deliver current and do so without excessive nonlinear distortion, and it's generally specified midband (~1 kHz).

You could still have output coupling capacitors rolling off the bottom end - the time constant is (R_out + R_load) * C_coupling - or a super wimpy output amplifier. TL072 opamps for example are quite notorious for preferring loads as high as 10k or even 20k if you want to avoid performance degradation, and 4558s aren't an awful lot better.
This is the formula I was looking for to compute input/output impendance.
Can you break this down, as a formula? I don't understand the (470 || 10k) part.
First off, you can blame this guy:
Thevenin's theorem - Wikipedia

"||" is a shorthand for a parallel circuit.
R1 || R2 = R1 * R2 / (R1 + R2)

This works quite the same for complex impedances Z. Should somebody be lazy enough to write "R || C", what they actually mean is "R || Z(C)", with Z(C) = 1 / (j 2 π f C).
 
Hi and sorry to jump in.
Another case here of preamp with too much gain.

dac Zout = 50 ohm
preamp Zin = 12.5 kohm

Referring to the image below i was thinking to R1= 2kohm and R2= 1kohm

Voltage_divider.svg
 
How many dBs do you want to decrease the gain? -9.993741 dBs?

@OP How many dBs do you want to attenuate?
What's the input impedance of your preamp: 10K?

Hi let me explain better the situation. Now i get too high SPL in my room with the volume pot of the preamp even below 9 o'clock position
I would like to have the same situation with pot at 12 o'clock or around that position
I do not really know how many dBs of decrease this would mean ... the idea is to start with reducing the signal coming from the dac of 2/3 ...

Yes the Zin of the preamp is 12.5k from the specifications.

I would like to add that this situation is very common for me ... i really do not understant why the preamps have not a variabile gain control made maybe with high quality resistors
 
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PRR

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.... too much gain.
i was thinking to R1= 2kohm and R2= 1kohm

You have the right idea.

Don't over-compute when you don't know "how much" you need (you don't).

Buy a bunch of 470r 1k 2k2 3k3 4k7 resistors, twist into an RCA-RCA cable, and TRY it. 2k:1k may work for "a little too much gain". If you have a lot too much ("9" seems like a lot of empty gain) then 4k7:470r may be more what you want. Resistors are cheaper than hurting your brain :guilty: looking-up specs and computing numbers.
 
You have the right idea.
Don't over-compute when you don't know "how much" you need (you don't).
Buy a bunch of 470r 1k 2k2 3k3 4k7 resistors, twist into an RCA-RCA cable, and TRY it.
2k:1k may work for "a little too much gain"

Thank you so much for your very kind and valuable advice.
I hope this will not cause impedance issues ... at least with amp of 10K and up

If you have a lot too much ("9" seems like a lot of empty gain) then 4k7:470r may be more what you want.
Resistors are cheaper than hurting your brain :guilty: looking-up specs and computing numbers
Thanks again. The alternative would be a small value pot (2.5k ?) placed directly at the power amp inputs. Then measure the wiper to ground resistance for the position of the pot that gives a good compromise ?
 
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