Tribute Inductive Volume Control and other TVCs

[Fing]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

Fing:

Are you looking to sell your TVC? I might be interested Although, I contacted Nickolas and he's willing to sell me the balanced TVCs naked for DIY use

Sorry - like many audio addicts, I'm always hoping for something bigger and better down the road.

Good luck with the balanced TVC's from Nick. The poor man sounds constantly inundated. Like another audio retailer we all know and love.

[humanflyz]

I had a S&B unit (mark 2 i think), but I eventually sold it because it wasn't loud enough for me. But then again, I identify more closely with the postjack school of volume, and I had no complaint about the resolution/detail/tone of the TVC when I had it.

[luvdunhill]

hm.. so, I'm not getting an overwhelming response "go try this, no one has done it". It would definitely be the road less traveled. I have ruled out the Sowter attenuator transformers, as they cannot handle the signal without saturation. In fact, as aerius mentioned, any 100% mu-metal / permalloy solution will not work unless it's air gapped to support DC.

So, as far as the "coupling capacitor" hating crowd, which is worse:

1.) an attenuating resistor + coupling capacitor on output
2.) a transformer

[luvdunhill]

Just wanted to add this informative link to the thread:

ecp.cc

[n_maher]

Doug does some pretty cool stuff, yup!

[aerius]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

hm.. so, I'm not getting an overwhelming response "go try this, no one has done it". It would definitely be the road less traveled.

Well, the thing is you'd like to use the TVC between the preamp and amp and have it do the SE to balance conversion as well. TVCs are generally optimized for lower signal levels such as what you'd find coming out of a CD player, your planned application is not what they're made for.

What you could do is stick a TVC/AVC on the input of the preamp and then use another transformer on its output to do the SE/balanced conversion. That way both transformers run the way they're meant to and you don't have saturation or overload problems. Unfortunately the costs go up a fair bit, good transformers ain't cheap.

[luvdunhill]

Originally Posted by aerius

What you could do is stick a TVC/AVC on the input of the preamp and then use another transformer on its output to do the SE/balanced conversion. That way both transformers run the way they're meant to and you don't have saturation or overload problems. Unfortunately the costs go up a fair bit, good transformers ain't cheap.

yeah, this is what Sowter recommended I do with the second transformer for conversion.

I think the key is to avoid Permalloy / mu-metal and thus allow higher voltages. I'm talking with 2 people about custom units from either grain oriented steel or a 50% Permalloy solution.

They are saying that I can get maximum input voltage up to around 25 VAC this way. The other option would be an air-gapped core, but that will reduce inductance by a factor and make the unit less suitable for volume control.

Now the question is how much DC these custom units can handle (since I'm moving away from Permalloy) and if I can use them to replace the coupling caps as well... stay tuned!

[luvdunhill]

Just paid for the Promitheus Audio TVC!

[luvdunhill]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

Just paid for the Promitheus Audio TVC!

hm.. still waiting...

[Salt Peanuts]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

hm.. still waiting...

What's the ETA?

I've always wanted to try it out (Promitheus TVC) but I want remote with my preamp.

[luvdunhill]

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts

What's the ETA?

I've always wanted to try it out (Promitheus TVC) but I want remote with my preamp.

dunno... he's MIA (Mikhail in Action) at the moment...

remote would be possible, I'll have one

[Salt Peanuts]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

remote would be possible, I'll have one

Didn't realize that was even an option.

[luvdunhill]

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts

Didn't realize that was even an option.

well, everything is an option for DIY, right? =)

[n_maher]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

hm.. still waiting...

That's not encouraging.

[luvdunhill]

Originally Posted by n_maher

That's not encouraging.

I'm happy waiting (even without communication), but is there some sort of cut-off point for trying to pursue a refund via PayPal?

[n_maher]

Originally Posted by luvdunhill

I'm happy waiting (even without communication), but is there some sort of cut-off point for trying to pursue a refund via PayPal?

IIRC 45 days, but you should verify that. And recovery only works if the funds are still available in the receivers account.

[luvdunhill]

I just got a DHL tracking number, so.....