I'm replacing all my pots with ...

Gosh darn it, Tom, why didn't I think of that? But then, you are the appropriate shade of green, aren't you?

Actually, I'm thinking of taking my idea further. As alloy road wheels are used to reduce unsprung weight in cars, I'll reduce unsprung weight on the poor pot shaft by having beryllium ones made. I'll get them done by BBS, and the really high performances ones will be the ones with the Ferrari prancing horse thereon (at a price premium of course). For Michael and Bub, we'll do BMW ones, at a lower price (merely exorbitant, as opposed to outrageous). Since there's one born every minute and many seem to gravitate into hi-fi, I expect soon to announce the purchase of my full size road wheels with Ferrari attached.

 

my mate had a wooden amp - I forget the name, but it had wooden casing, wooden knobs, and wooden circutry and guess what..?
it wooden work....groan...

I know, I just get my jacket...

 

Of course, had you had my audiophile, wood-loving electrons (a steal at £1000 per Avogadro number), it would have worked wonderfully. Don't forget to specify which wood, so that the electrons can be tailored to suit.

 

Those volume pots really are pushing people's belief in audio tweakery to the limit! I bet the people selling them will be killing themselves laughing if/when they sell any .

 

tones,
by your reasoning the knob is totally isolated from the contact and track that actually IS in the signal path.. if this is so how can turning the knob make the volume or balance go up and down?
i hate myself for defending this drek but it must be done as neither of us has heard one in action...
cheers


julian

 

In case there is any doubt ...

For a small fee (sorry that should read small fortune) I will coat anyone's existing knobs with the magic C37 juice.

I'm away from my hi-fi at the moment but if anyone has a stethoscope they can listen to the sound of the knobs and compare with the sound of the vibrations on the front panel itself.

I'll also coat front panels for slightly less than the cost of a pair of Nonsuch 4s.

Talking of which, has anyone been listening to Radio Shropshire today? Apparently I've been on the news every half-hour for auctioning the Ironbridge Power Station.

 

Then why defend it? It is such obvious claptrap that you only discredit yourself by doing so. Are you telling me that the signal flows through the knob as part of the path? I don't think so. The current would flow between the two points of contact, not make a long detour via the shaft and knob. And, if I recall correctly, the knob and shaft ARE completely electrically insulated from the functioning components (I confess I am not sure about this).

And even if it weren't thus insulated and the signal went round the world for a shortcut, it would make not one ha'p'orth of difference to the function of the pot. The critical thing would remain the relative positioning of the two contact elements, which would be the same, even if the knob vibration were measurable on the Richter Scale.

I agree with and admire your determination to be open-minded about these things, but when something like this comes along, which is in total defiance of all the physical principles I ever learned, I reject it as complete dross and regard without any hesitation any perceived improvement as resulting purely from the desire to justify the payment of an absurd sum of money essentially for nothing.

 

Heady stuff! What a thrusting and dynamic county Shropshire must be

Sounds just like Somerset

 

tones,
knob connected to shaft, shaft connected to contact, contact in contact with track. signal goes through contact and track. vibrations to the knob cause shaft to vibrate, shaft vibrations cause contact to vibrate, contact vibrations cause changes to the sound as the entire raison d-etre of the pot is to cause changes to the sound by moving the contact round the track. i really can't express it any simpler than that.
saying that the signal doesn't pass through the knob means nothing for the case outlined above as its the vibrations of the knob causing subtle movements of the contact that cause the sound to change.
cheers

julian

 

A for effort, Julian, but sorry, it's still garbage. Subject closed.

 

I believe the point of the knob is to eliminate sympathetic vibrations which travel from the knob, down the shaft, and onto the wiper/blade, which causes fluctuations in the position.

Its bullshit, and thats all there is to it.

 

So you are cliaming you've got a wobbly knob and making it wooden and painted in Steve's sticky goo will improve things? Ooh err.

 

Couldn't agree more. Bugger all to do with audio, though :banana:
If we are talking audio, then would it be possible to explain the whys and wheres of these "subtle movements" and how they are related to what comes out of the speakers?

 

That doesn't sound totally implausible as a mechanism, but I do think that the earlier point about the friction of the pot preventing significant movement is a good one. Also, whichever way you spin this, the price still has to be a total p*ss take.

 

Next someone will be selling a product that removes all acoustic vibrations from the room. I can just imagine it..

"New from K-Tel! Acoustic energy eliminator! Simply connect to your speaker cables, and this clever device will TOTALLY mute the audio signal, and remove unnecessary and polluting vibration from your room! T.Bullshit from Stoke said "Its amazing! Now I can hear more of what the audio signal was masking! WOW!" Buy now only £3535 + VAT, special one time limited offer only!"

 

Wooden knobs - what a load of claptrap.

Next they'll be suggesting that the metal case of a amp or CD player should be damped too. I mean, get serious. The case is even further removed from the signal path.

God, some people are just mad. Ha ha ha.


Oh err, hang on a second...

 

i'm in total agreement that the product in question is overpriced in the extreme also i would have thought a light knob made out of plastic, carbon fibre or some other exotic lightweight material along wiht some sort of sorbothane o-ring to absorb the vibrations between knob and shaft would be far better at the stated purpose than something that looks like it's been snapped off grannies corset draw and had a triangle glued on it.
as for friction between the contact and track preventing vibrations from causing distortion well i'd say that was down to the type of pot in question, i've handled some pretty loose pots in my time .
my points were...
1) there is a mechanism at work which *COULD* distort the sound.
2) for certain pots, the gimcrack in question *COULD* change the nature of that distortion.
3) having a closed mind about it and especially not hearing it for yourself before passing judgement is a silly thing to do.
cheers


julian

 

Lol, I think someone is trying to find a way to pay for fixing grannies broken draws??

 

An alternative point of view might be that even entertaining the notion that something so daft could possibly make any difference is an even sillier thing to do. You pays your money, you takes your choice But opinions are obviously polarised on this one, so I guess we should maybe move on

 

The problem is that these silly tweaks sometimes work. Think stands, a few years back you would be laughed if you'd suggested a rack made a difference let alone had differing sonic properties, likewise the use of multiple spurs is considered spurious in certain quarters. So wobbly knobs affecting microphonic vibrations might be plausible.

Having said that it's a lot of money for a little wood which probably will have little affect