Simple volume control for audio amplifier ?
Good day folks. I want to run a Bose subwoofer and some random speakers on my PC at home. I don't have an amp for this project yet and I was looking for decent solutions and I figured I could very well run them on a car amp. Why not a regular hi-fi amp ? I figured a car amp would fit better under my desk. I looked at a Sony XMN1004 which is relatively affordable, yet of decent enough quality and with good reviews overall. Conveniently enough, this Bose Acoustimass 5 Series II sub (what a name
) I have has two drivers inside, each with its own separate terminal, so I can hook it up to the Sony as shown either in panel J or in panel K of the manual.
Trouble is this setup would have no volume control, since the amp expects the headunit to handle that, so instead of having to mess around with my PC's volume setting all the time, I thought I could make my own with some pots. I have a stereo Alps pot in my parts bin which I got for a different project which never saw the light of day, so that should be adequate here. I also thought of adding a "balance" control, so I came up with this doodle.
OK I know what I did there is actually NOT "balance" control by any means (rather individual channel volumes for the "front" outputs). The thinking behind this is the amp itself already has gain controls for the front and rear channels on it, so VR2 and VR3 after the master Alps pot (VR1) would serve to trim the two satellite speakers in case my ears feel one is louder than the other, but without affecting the rear channels which drive the sub. I'd set the sub volume with the trimmer on the amp itself and it'd still go up/down when VR1 is turned...I THINK. I don't have the amp yet anyway to experiment, so I thought I should discuss my idea in the meantime, so my choice of amp here is not really important at this point - it's the pot arrangement I'm curious about, because I know there's a lot going on behind a pot, esp. in audio applications. It could even apply to those Aliexpress amp modules
Cheers.
) I have has two drivers inside, each with its own separate terminal, so I can hook it up to the Sony as shown either in panel J or in panel K of the manual.Trouble is this setup would have no volume control, since the amp expects the headunit to handle that, so instead of having to mess around with my PC's volume setting all the time, I thought I could make my own with some pots. I have a stereo Alps pot in my parts bin which I got for a different project which never saw the light of day, so that should be adequate here. I also thought of adding a "balance" control, so I came up with this doodle.
OK I know what I did there is actually NOT "balance" control by any means (rather individual channel volumes for the "front" outputs). The thinking behind this is the amp itself already has gain controls for the front and rear channels on it, so VR2 and VR3 after the master Alps pot (VR1) would serve to trim the two satellite speakers in case my ears feel one is louder than the other, but without affecting the rear channels which drive the sub. I'd set the sub volume with the trimmer on the amp itself and it'd still go up/down when VR1 is turned...I THINK. I don't have the amp yet anyway to experiment, so I thought I should discuss my idea in the meantime, so my choice of amp here is not really important at this point - it's the pot arrangement I'm curious about, because I know there's a lot going on behind a pot, esp. in audio applications. It could even apply to those Aliexpress amp modules
Cheers.
Attached Files