Bottlehead Forum
General Category => Technical topics => Topic started by: Cleet Torres on July 20, 2013, 02:54:33 PM
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Even at one click on the Foreplay volume the music is too loud when using my Roku as source. (I know it's too loud because girlfriend says so.) What to do, I love the Roku.
Is there anyway I can attenuate the cable by using an x-cap, cdc, xcap? Clean out the cable and cut down on the volume. I don't want to spend more money on a passive pre (I know I don't want to because my girlfriend says so - you get the idea) but $50 but so mod to a cable is what will work.
Thanks
Cleet
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Turn in your
hymnals manual to page 24. All shall be revealed.
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Even at one click on the Foreplay volume the music is too loud when using my Roku as source. (I know it's too loud because girlfriend says so.) What to do, I love the Roku.
Is there anyway I can attenuate the cable by using an x-cap, cdc, xcap? Clean out the cable and cut down on the volume. I don't want to spend more money on a passive pre (I know I don't want to because my girlfriend says so - you get the idea) but $50 but so mod to a cable is what will work.
Thanks
Cleet
Get a new girlfriend (I recommend Asian) and put a bigger resistor on one of the inputs at the selector switch.
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Should have mentioned - I don't want to mod the Foreplay. It works well with all my other components and it has only a single input. I did a lot of tweaking to get it sounding perfect.
The Roku will be around for a year or so tops, till I put enough away for an "audiophile" level audio streamer. The foreplay and my phono amp and tube dac will be around as long as I have ears.
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John, Julie is Korean. ;D
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A) It is not a "mod". The Foreplay was designed to handle this specific problem - to have the gain on each input optimized for the particular source used on that input. Many don't bother to make this customization, but it's still the intent of the design. See my notes on "signals and noise" linked off the Community page of the Bottlehead site for more about why I care about this problem.
B) Tell Julie (she sounds smart) this will cost less than a dollar.
C) Don't tell her it's more like $10+ if you use super-premium tantalum resistors for this adjustment. Just skip a couple lattes instead. :^)
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Hi Paul
No I cannot tell Julie it's less than $10, then she''ll spend the $360 odd remaining I would have spent on a submission on a new pair of shoes. :(
I've ripped out the selector on the Foreplay some time ago already, so if I solder in the resistor my seduction and dac have to use the same input ... well they're more important to work well with the Foreplay than the Roku.
But I think indirectly that has given me the solution; I can solder a resistor into my cable. That will have the same net effect right? And then I can xcap the cable with something like a .047uF which will still give about 700ohm resistance at 20K but filter out any RF the Roku is sending down the IC. It does sound a little "peaky" ...
Cleet
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You can put a pad on the Foreplay end of the Roku cable (NOT the Roku end). Try a 100K resistor between the center pin on the Foreplay end and the center (hot) conductor on the cable. This will give you about 18dB of pad with the stock 15K attenuators in the Foreplay.
-PB
(Of course, if you put the selector switch and padding resistors back, you could have the Roku and Seduction play at the same level when switching inputs)
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Or.....you could use a pair of these (http://www.amazon.com/Harrison-Labs-Line-Level-Attenuator/dp/B0006N41B0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374379608&sr=8-1&keywords=Harrison+labs+12).
Sure, more expensive than a resistor, but not overly expensive, easily removable, and they sound great. I use them on my Crack.
Best regards,
Adam
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You can put a pad on the Foreplay end of the Roku cable (NOT the Roku end). Try a 100K resistor between the center pin on the Roku end and the center (hot) conductor on the cable.
1. I thought you were using pad to mean resistor....I'm confused that in the 2nd sentence quoted above, you say to put the 100k resistor on the Roku end?
2. I'm curious: why does it matter what end the resistor is on?
Best regards,
Adam
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I ammended my post.
The series resistor and the string of resistors in the Foreplay volume controls will form a pad.
If you have the 100K series resistor on the Roku end, cable capacitance will become an issue.
(@ Adam - those inline attenuators may decrease the input impedance of the Foreplay, as it is run now (I think), it is already too low)
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CB, the 100ohm short works like a charm. I happened to have a T connector with a 100ohm short to load my DL103R handy, and presto.
I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but the mid range has opened up quite a bit and the peaky top end is gone.
Great great great. :D
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You are using a single input, right? If so, then soldering a padding resistor in series with the hot lead in your Foreplay end of your cables should give you the same effect.
. . . I've ripped out the selector on the Foreplay some time ago already, so if I solder in the resistor my seduction and dac have to use the same input ... well they're more important to work well with the Foreplay than the Roku. . . .
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John, Julie is Korean. ;D
Ok then. Keep her. ;D
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Yup, I second that guys. My wife is from the Philippines, and I am in heaven.
About resistors for input level adjustment. I've only tried the tans in a piece of my equipment. Yes the sound is slightly different, and for my integrated, it just became the lesser of two evils.
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Yup, I second that guys. My wife is from the Philippines, and I am in heaven.
About resistors for input level adjustment. I've only tried the tans in a piece of my equipment. Yes the sound is slightly different, and for my integrated, it just became the lesser of two evils.
I'm live in Japan and travel to PI frequently so I dig where you are coming from. My current gf of the last three years or so is Chinese which is an interesting Asian variant in and among itself. She's a keeper.
Regarding the preamp padding just swap the resistor on one of the inputs is still the bestest, fastest, cheapest solution.
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John, that would be a good solution if I had more than one input.
I took a T connector and put a 100ohm across the live an neutral on each as suggested by CB, and it works a charm. Not only has it solved my high input level issues, but my mid range seem to really "pop" now and the Roku is decidedly less peaky.
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Just to be 100% clear, putting 100 Ohms across the live and neutral was not at all what I suggested, and will cause horrendous issues with the performance of the Seduction, and potentially the Roku.
-PB
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John, that would be a good solution if I had more than one input.
I took a T connector and put a 100ohm across the live an neutral on each as suggested by CB, and it works a charm. Not only has it solved my high input level issues, but my mid range seem to really "pop" now and the Roku is decidedly less peaky.
You have a Foreplay with only one input? I thought they all had three. Even my Foreplay 2 has 3 inputs.
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My bad CB. I misread your post, but it seems to work well with the Roku. I won't be using it on the seduction, mainly because the 100K short T connector is what I use to load my cart. If the Rokyu goes south ... not really a biggie.
John, Foreplays have three inputs. I went through a "less is more" stage a few years ago so now I just plug and unplug source cables. Not an issue given the rca's being on top of the chassis
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I can understand the less is more thing. Been there. Less switches, connections, jacks and the like. Only issue for me was the RCA jacks taking constant cable changes. Funny thing, I still make and remake connections all the time for various reasons, even though I have three inputs.
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FYI - the Roku probably has a pair of caps at the output, and they are probably sized to see no less than 1000 Ohms of load (10K would be even more reasonable).
If we assume that they are 10uF electrolytics, putting a 100 Ohm load on the Roku will give you a -3dB point of around 160Hz, and your bass response will be subpar.
-PB