kel84 removing volume pot

Just got my hands on a squeezebox3 replacing my naim cd5 as a source and I'm over the moon with the sound of the sb3 out of the box.

Just waiting for my Lite Audio DAC60 to arrive to take the sound a stage further, no doubt the soldering iron will come out again to mod the dac60

As the sb3 digital volume control sounds so good, I am looking at feeding the line signal straight onto the board.


Although I have made various mods to the Kel84 - ICAR PIO caps, PSU bypass caps, DC heater rectifier, Jupiter beeswax coupling caps. I am uncertain if I need to make any further mods to the circuit to accommodate the removal of the volume pot - in particular i'm thinking different values for r2/r3, signal to ground, which are 1M.

Anyone point me in the right direction?

Also, can you get face plates without the holes for the kel84?

thnx,

Rich

[david counter]

change the 1M resistors to 100K, that's really all you have to do
if Peter at WD can't help with the faceplate try designing your own
using http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/index.php...age&Itemid=205

[Greg.]

Hi Rich,

I expect the original face plates were made by MJR fabrications, Unit B, Cranborne Ind. est. Cranborne Road, Potters Bar, Herts, EN6 3JN. Tel 01707 646825.

It's worth an inquiry of the proprietor, Martin Reeves. You'll probably speak to his wife Sandra who works as his secretary. They made many of the chassis' and faceplates for WAD. I know a one off order for a chassis is expensive, but a face plate might not be so difficult and therefore be a reasonable cost. They cut the ali plate to size with drillings and brush finishing etc and then send them off for the final anodizing. They used to be able to add the WAD silk screened emblem but I suspect that is a service now not available. A call is certainly worth a try.

Best wishes,

Greg

Thnx for the pointers

Swapped the r2/r3 and while I had the soldering out swapped all the signal resistors for tantalum equivalents and took out the volume pot etc.

Straight away, there was a noticeable difference in dynamics for the better

Thnx for the info on the covers, considering making a wood face plate or maybe new case with woods sides