The Shunt/Series use one brushing contact, the Ladder uses two, which is a contributing factor I suppose, but I wouldn't have thought this was as detrimental as a hole bunch of components strung together. The old adage, less is more comes to mind.
I know you are happy with the results Oli, we are probably talking very minor differences here anyway.
Last edited by Qwin; 15-10-2018 at 18:44.
Your point about individual, smaller value resistors, having lower distortion is right I think, but it is additive across the number used, so you end up with more distortion overall. This is marketed as the rational for using the Ladder type, which is just a load of individual voltage divider networks.
I just looked at who is making/selling what and there are not many Series Type made compared with Shunt or Ladder. There are some Ladder types selling at around a Grand or more, if simpler, cheaper to make alternatives gave better results, I don't think they would bother.
On the other hand Khozmo make all three types, but give no indication as to which is preferable.
Some of the Ladder type using surface mount devices, with their shorter signal paths are incredibly compact.
Ladder attenuators were all the rage a while back, had one retro fitted in my Croft Pre, still plenty available, just wondering why they had not been considered in this thread.
I use the SMT ladder version of the Khozmo 10k with relay switching and optical encoder. It's a very nice pot. Not quite sure it's as clean as a similar value Goldpoint but it does have a remote control in the mix.
In a ladder arrangement isn't the total resistor noise the total resistance / the number of resistors, or thereabouts
Kuzma Stabi/S 12", (LP12-bastard) DC motor and optical tacho psu, Benz LP, Paradise (phonostage). MB-Pro, Brooklyn dac and psu, Bruno Putzeys balanced pre, mod86p dual mono amps, Yamaha NS1000m
I think that would give you an average for the noise across the settings.
In a Ladder there is only ever one resistor connected in series with the signal and one to ground.
When you move up one notch it connects a different resistor in series with the signal and a different one to ground, which maintains impedance and so on for each step.
Those motorised units with digital display look really nice, but ouch, are they expensive.
They are expensive, and mine had a sticky relay so from step 24 to step 32 one channel was down. Not so noticeable for the first few clicks up from 24, but stepping from 32 to 31 was an 8db drop. It's off for repairs. He was super quick in responding to my email and no questions asked. It's a beautiful unit and sounds great, above 32.... ;-)
Kuzma Stabi/S 12", (LP12-bastard) DC motor and optical tacho psu, Benz LP, Paradise (phonostage). MB-Pro, Brooklyn dac and psu, Bruno Putzeys balanced pre, mod86p dual mono amps, Yamaha NS1000m