Diy attenuated rca cable

[pooger]

Why do you think you need to attenuate the signal? If your normal listening level was at 11 o'clock or full on, then this might make sense. As long as you are not overloading your amps input stage, you will get a cleaner (higher s/n ratio) the higher you set your amps volume. There will be recordings that need more attenuation than others, and if your loudest is overloading the amps input, then you would want to cut the signal some.

 

think of it this way—the lower the input signal is, the more it needs to be amplified. Unfortunately, there is also a noise floor in the amp, that also gets amplified along with the signal.

 

your amp is integrated, so let's assume that the Mac designers have set the internal gain blocks at optimum for the circuit topologies. Your job is to feed the loudest signal you can into the input stage without overloading it in any way, then use the volume control to set your listening volume.

[pooger]

Ok, if you want to do this, then use foil resistors. Vishay makes some of the best. You will need to use a surface mount size to fit into the connector; typically the higher the tolerance, the better the noise specs get also. Mouser has a huge selection. If you have the room for a through hole resistor, the the vishay naked foils are the ones to get. You can use the smallest size, but they are still physically large.

 

I totally agree with using the 32 bit digital control though; I run my amp full on, and haven't found any electrical attenuators (including ladder laser trimmed arrays in quality switches) that sound as good as the digital volume.

[pooger]

When you write " the preamp stage in my Mac is better" are you trying out the digital volume by bypassing the preamp stage? If so, then try keeping it in, and if you want, with the volume as high as you want; and then compare to the digital volume control. It is very possible that bypassing your pre amp stage completely wouldn't sound as good.