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stepped attenuators

Stepped attenuators are new to me and I must say that I'm impressed. I recently acquired a new Burson PI-160 and it leaves the older unit (which I have) in the dust. Burson says that the signal is at its weakest when going through the volume control and tried and tossed out a remote in favor of the attenuator. I can see why. I have all the detail, dynamics, nuance, tone, sound stage, etc. at lower settings that I no longer have to crank it for things to get lively. Its like each setting is all that Burosn intended (hardwired, if you will) allowing all the signal to come through undistorted. I know there's more to this unit than the volume control but I feel it must have a huge influence on the sound quality.
How do you feel about them?
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g_m_c
443 posts
 
my tom evans vibe pre-amp has one and i love the precision, and the confidence of signal at low volumes. like your burson, the only other switch on the unit is the source selector. Tom even put the power switch several feet away on the power supply.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,385 posts
 
The Ayre V1xe has one as well. I believe that the unit was discontinued because it was so complicated and expensive to build. It is hand built with silver contacts, belted, and motorized...very accurate.
clio09
3,346 posts
 
I know there's more to this unit than the volume control but I feel it must have a huge influence on the sound quality.
How do you feel about them?

All switches impart a sonic signature. It has to do with diode effect. I suspect the reason you're enjoying the Burson has more to do with the circuit design and buffers than the switch.

FWIW - I like stepped attenuators too. I especially like the Seiden switches. However, my Lightspeed attenuator and Truth preamps (both using LDR technology) eliminate the switch from the equation and compared to other passive or buffered devices the difference is noticeable.
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