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Why no remote controlled discrete resistor volume?

I don't get it. It seems that Alps have the remote volume control market cornered. My understanding is that, in general, discrete resistor volume controls (stepped attenuators or relay activated resistors as used by NAT, AN Kits and others) are thought to provide the best sonics (detail, clarity, precision, etc.), followed by potentiometers and then chip controls. If this is true, why have none of the discrete resistor gang (Goldpoint, DACT, Seiden, TKD, etc.) come up with a direct competitor (or drop-in replacement) to the basic Alps remote motorized conductive plastic potentiometer volume control that can be purchased (motor and all) for about $35? These things show up in some highly reviewed preamps with prices approaching $10K and above. It just seems to me there should be better sonic options for remote controlled volume on preamps costing several thousand dollars and up. Why is it so hard to motorize a stepped attenuator? Just curious.
mitch2
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
http://electronics.dantimax.dk/Kits/Selectors_-_attenuators/index.html

Not exactly "drop-in".
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,550 posts
 
Good question. Potentiometers can add up to 7% distortion to the signal. That's a hell of a lot. Granted, QC goes a long way to avoid that, but what I'd like to know is just what is considered 'acceptable' to the audio community and is it widely known?
mitch2 OP
3,686 posts
 
Shadorne, my experience is that I like the discrete resistor controls better than pots, because I sense greater clarity, definition and coherence. I only have one experience with a chip control (which I think sounds ok) but received some feedback on another forum;
http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=amp&n=159528&highlight=help+understanding+mitch2&r=&search_url=%2Fcgi%2Fsearch.mpl%3Fsearchtext%3D%26b%3DAND%26topic%3D%26topics_only%3DN%26author%3Djnr%26date1%3D%26date2%3D%26slowmessage%3D%26sort%3Dscore%26sortOrder%3DDESC%26forum%3DALL
I found it interesting that while they thought the PGA2310 was an upgrade of the CS3310 from Cirrus Logic, they still found the chip controls as a group to be crappy, including the PGA2320 in the $10K Esoteric C03.
mitch2 OP
3,686 posts
 
Byron - that's great! I was not aware anyone had accomplished that. I still find it amazing that something so simple and relatively inexpensive (compared to the $5K+ preamps we purchase) has not been implemented by more companies compared to using a basic volume pot. Thanks also Ngjockey, although the Altavista solution is more what I was looking for.
intactaudio
293 posts
 
John Chapman does a number of resistive based remote units using logic and high quality relays to do the switching.

http://www.bentaudio.com/remotes/oem.html

dave
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