I'm replacing all my pots with ...

... these: Silver Rock Signature Knob.

Apparently it will dramatically improve the sound of my system and at only $485.00 a throw (plus postage, packing, import duties and VAT) has got to be one of the bargains of the decade.

I'd better get my order in quickly though. Now I've told you guys, you'll all want them.

 

i thought you meant you were going to start growing your own

 

Uhmm..

I do not say, it's bad, or doesn't work, but they are way better things than that nice looking wooden knob.

They steal your money away!

I'd think it's better to spend that money on new interconnects!!
(If you wanna upgrade something)

check out:
http://www.acoustic-reality.com/

and click on the cables...


They also got great products on:
(Like a good, but AFFORDABLE(at last) power strip, power cord, etc)

http://www.hifi-planet.com/hpah1.htm

Check it out

 

you can kind of see their point as the mechanical nature of a potentiometer is going to mean there is going to be microphony going on in there somewhere however at 500 bucks a pop thay are blatantly taking the wee. bet russ andrews comes up with 'oak knobs' quick smart now.
cheers


julian

 

Frankly, no, I can't. Julian, what were you drinking/smoking when you wrote that? You don't have shares in it, do you? Come back, DeMagic disc, all is forgiven!

 

I guess it's an American thing.

Something about having an enormous woody.......

 

Lfamo. Apparanty the best way to make your HIFI sound good is to feed it with weed.

The nutcase has used up his badnwidth limit too.

 

Barking! Absolutely barking! :lol:

 

tones,
from what i understand a potentiometer works by having a runner follow round some sort of conductive track thereby varying resistance. if vibration makes its way to this part of the pot then you are going to get very small changes in volume level made worse by the fact that this is going on twice for stereo and you may even have a balance pot to contend with too. these variations in volume and balance may not be immediately audiable as such but they *may* have an effect on the sound produced.
this was my train of thought when i wrote what i wrote, please feel free to kick it apart.
cheers

julian

 

Given the degree of friction in most potentiometers, and the inertia of the whole mechanism, and the microscopically small magnetic fields surrounding the conductive elements, I'd say that these knobs will be bought by, well, knobs.

 

Julian, I can understand that something in the signal path may affect the signal, but to suggest that something NOT in the signal path has a noticeable effect is, well, to use Technobear's splendid description, absolutely barking. If the pot vibrates, the pot vibrates - the fact that a knob happens to be fitted to it is not going to change that one iota. The vibration is inherent in the system and it will not be absorbed or diminished by changing the material of the knob. It's like saying that you can stop a clock pendulum swinging by making the weight of a energy-absorbing material. You are in fact expecting the suspension of one of the most fundamental laws of physics, namely that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed in form. Here we apparently have energy disappearing into thin air. Next Nobel Physics prize coming up for these guys!

It seems to me that, if this problem did exist in reality, as opposed to in the heads of the money-grabbing individuals who thought this one up, the logical thing would be to make the knobs as light as possible, for example, by using aluminium, magnesium or beryllium - most certainly NOT beech, which is quite a heavy wood.

P.S. Just occurs to me that your argument is based also on one of hi-fi's most enduring fallacies, namely that uniform, linear change all the way down to zero is possible. But this simply isn't so. As Tom says:

"Given the degree of friction in most potentiometers, and the inertia of the whole mechanism, and the microscopically small magnetic fields surrounding the conductive elements, I'd say that these knobs will be bought by, well, knobs."

And that's the point - systems are not frictionless such that minute vibrations will unsettle them. Tiny currents will not overcome the resistance inherent in even the best conductors and therefore will have no effect. There is a background level below which is simply isn't possible to go, courtesy of the nature of materials themselves. In addition, the components themselves have flaws, even the best constructed of them, meaning that, again, there will be a level of performance that they simply cannot exceed. The con artists are basically asking you to assume that normal physical limitations can miraculously be overcome. I eagerly await the day of frictionless, inertialess components and room temperature superconducting materials, but we'll wait for a while longer, I fear.

 

If the volume pot is made heavier, it will require more energy to vibrate it to the same degree. Therefore, as the energy is (presumably) consistent the amount of vibration will in fact be cut down.

However, I do agree that the idea this will make the sound better is a big con and a load of ball crap!!

Sure, change the pot and it can sound better. Try an Alps blue. They are about £40 I think. But changing the knob on it?!?! LMAO!!

 

Not a bad idea! You have to give it a good polish though to get the full effect.

 

You know it just occurred to me that perhaps the reason why some amps are better than others, despite all the companies trying their very hardest to make the best amp they can, is that out of complete coincidence some pick a better sounding knob for their volume pot than others!! They don't even know they are doing it!

 

Oh I think we can do better than wooden knobs.

Here, I'm selling these at a pre-review price of just £150 each with free P&P.

 

You should work for them!!!

Seriously that deserves some sort of prize!! ..or something its very funny!!

 

LMAO!!!!!!!!

Hex Spurt! Funniest post (other than ATs regular ramblings about his persoan llife ) that I've seen in a while!

Well done!

Any chance of a powerbuy?

 

tones,
surely the pot IS in the signal path - unless of course you have a digital volume control. all i'm saying is that if people can tell the difference between what their kit is sitting on (yes i know YOU can't but some claim to) or claim to hear a change when different capacitors are used or by sticking blobs of blue tak onto clocks and caps then something that is mechanical because of it;s very purpose is going to be much more microphonic than said capacitors and therefore changing a (relatively) heavy weight hanging off an arm that often stretches from the front of the amp to the back is going to have even more of an effect. i'm definately NOT advocating this kind of thing but to my mind it has just as much if not more validity than the aforementioned tweaks, never mind the green pens and bits of star dust that some here use.
cheers


julian

 

And whoever said that these were at all valid?

And while the pot is indeed in the signal path, the knob that adjusts the setting manifestly is not. Sorry, but I think the whole thing is complete codswallop and the hearing of any difference would be purely psychological. It's one of these cases where "the King's new clothes" syndrome kicks in. I'm afraid I'll never make a real hi-fi enthusiast - I just can't summon the belief that makes these things work for some people.

 

But you're all forgetting that they are coated in the magic C-37 varnish which as we know works well on speaker cones