Tweakers' Asylum

RE:CAT SL1 volume pot mod

67.83.196.73

JoeKool

A

In Reply to: RE: About modifying units (dacs and preamps). posted by beppe61 on July 04, 2015 at 02:26:28

I replaced the volume pot in my CAT preamp, with individual mono pots, eliminating the balance pot...why? Cuz the original pot has huge steps which combined with the CAT massive 26dB line stage gain made late nite listening challenging, one click down=too low, one click up=too high.
The new pots has 48 steps(verses 23 of the old), much easier to find the just right level for my late nite listening sessions.
Eliminating the balance pot made for a nice improvement in separation/soundstage width and other subtle gains in SQ.

Follow Ups:

RE:CAT SL1 volume pot mod - beppe61 08:39:58 07/16/15 (2)
Hi and thanks for the valuable advice.
I had a line stage with a gain of about 6 times (16 dB ?)
Way too much for the power amp.
The volume pot was a 10k attenuator ... i put a 10K resistor in series with its input and halved the max voltage out.
With the right combination of resistor and pot the gain can be reduced a lot indeed.
I believe a lot in the solution.

Kind regards,
bg
- RE:CAT SL1 volume pot mod - JoeKool 23:43:39 07/16/15 (1)
  I tried using an attenuation circuit(series /parallel resisters)in front the pot but SQ took a hit.
  - RE:CAT SL1 volume pot mod - beppe61 01:27:09 07/17/15 (0)
    Hi i see
    I do not know the actual value of the Cat SL1 pot ... but if the pot is 250k for instance you could try a 200k high quality resistor in series with a 50k attenuator.
    In this way the input signal voltage reaching the pot will be reduced by around 5 times ?
    You could try with cheap but decent parts first (resistor and pot) and if you like the sound then buy something of very good.
    
    Kind regards,
    bg
    
    Edits: 07/17/15 07/17/15
RE:CAT SL1 volume pot mod - jedrider 22:18:12 07/15/15 (0)
Once had dual mono stepped attenuators. Soured me on the concept maybe for life. Yes, 48 steps sounds about right. I may have gotten use to it if there were enough gradations in level.

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