I was lucky enough to grab a pair of old Clarostat 75k wirewound pots on E-pay. I'm thinking of using them in my preamp law-faked with a high qality 15k resistor. I happen to have a pile of old bobbin-wound ultraprecision resistors that I picked up years and years ago from Poly-Paks (remember them?). Has anyone ever used this type of resistor in audio? I wonder how they sound.
thanks for mentioning poly-paks. now, i don't feel so old by myself
🙂
to answer your question - never used 'em, no idea how they sound.
mlloyd1
🙂
to answer your question - never used 'em, no idea how they sound.
mlloyd1
wirewound pots
I can't speak for the Clarostat controls, but I have used wirewound controls with law faking resistors with great success. In fact, I like them more than most stepped attenuators I have tried. I used a 50kOhm pot with a 6K8 Ohm law faking resistor. Your control would permit a higher input impedance. Hope you got a good price on the wirewound controls.
I can't speak for the Clarostat controls, but I have used wirewound controls with law faking resistors with great success. In fact, I like them more than most stepped attenuators I have tried. I used a 50kOhm pot with a 6K8 Ohm law faking resistor. Your control would permit a higher input impedance. Hope you got a good price on the wirewound controls.
Hi,
I wonder if these would respond to a liberal dose of switch cleaner and lots of wiper moving to clear away any contamination of the contacts?
I wonder if these would respond to a liberal dose of switch cleaner and lots of wiper moving to clear away any contamination of the contacts?
Anderw, what are "these", the pot or the switched attenuators? As far as I can tell, the pots I have are not gunked up. If I need to clean up the wiper/element, the rear cover simply snaps off. Not bad, for a pot that may be almost as old as I am. To beeger - I got the pots for $12.99 the pair. They have the old Navy anchor stamp on the back.
Depending on impedance, some of these wirewounds can exhibit very high inductance which pulls back HF response.
I've seen worse than 3dB at 20KHz on a British wirewound 100K, and it's highly audible, but if yours are 20K or less you'd probably be OK.
Cheers,
Hugh
I've seen worse than 3dB at 20KHz on a British wirewound 100K, and it's highly audible, but if yours are 20K or less you'd probably be OK.
Cheers,
Hugh
I took one of my 75k Clarostat wirewound pots to work today and subjected it to a 100Hz-100kHz scan on an HP 4194A analyzer. If anything. there was a very slight drop in impedance at the high end of the scale, indicating that stray capacitance is more of a factor with this particular pot than inductance. The next thing I'll do is to try a scan on one of the Daven 17.83k wirewounds I've chosen as a lawfake resistor. It'll be interesting so see if they used a non-inductive wind technique.
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