Time to pad my volume and fix a channel imbalance - What is my best option?

[Acclaim]

[1]Remove the white wire from the left RCA jack at the rear of the chassis.  Solder in a 270K resistor to the solder cup on that jack, solder the white wire to the other end.  Repeat this for the red wire with another 270K resistor.  This will give you about a -10dB pad at the input.  If you still have the issue, try 470K instead.  The wattage of these resistors isn't all that important, anything between 1/16 Watt and 1/2 Watt is reasonable, with metal film and carbon film types being most recommended.

[2]I would put a 33K across the outer pair of lugs on each level, and a 75K in series between each center post on the RCA jacks and the wire connected to them.  This will give you some serious padding, as well as maintaining a reasonable input impedance.

[3]Try 50K in place of the 75K.

I found a few spare hours to pad my volume and tackle a channel imbalance found at low volume levels. Hoping to address both issues with one of the solutions proposed above by PB.

Currently, I find the maximum comfortable volume to be at 1/4 turn. Hopefully this will give an idea of how much padding is necessary to allow for finer volume control.

Which, of the 3 above, would be my best option? Or perhaps there is another solution?

Should I be looking for metal/carbon film, 025W resistors for all? (Would something like these work: http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=Resistors&product=2719018)

Apologies if this is an ignorant question, the Crack + Speedball was my first DIY electronic project!

Thanks in advance!

[Paul Birkeland]

1/4 Watt carbon film resistors will work just fine, and are very easy to find.

I would go with option 2 for your situation.

-PB

[Acclaim]

1/4 Watt carbon film resistors will work just fine, and are very easy to find.

I would go with option 2 for your situation.

-PB

Thanks PB! 

Will update with progress and pictures.

[Nathan]

I padded down my volume control. I think it took me all of 15 minutes, 20 tops, to do everything. I went with option 3, and am using metal film resistors. They were cheap enough and this modification works. It gives me greater range in using the volume control. Really, a super easy job. 

[JamieMcC]

I went down this route as well for a while it wasn't till a little later on and I fitted a stepped attenuator that I found I no longer required the padding as the stepper took care of the low volume channel and had a little more range to it.

[Nathan]

"I went down this route as well for a while it wasn't till a little later on and I fitted a stepped attenuator that I found I no longer required the padding as the stepper took care of the low volume channel and had a little more range to it."

Which did you use? Curious-

Thanks-

[JamieMcC]

"I went down this route as well for a while it wasn't till a little later on and I fitted a stepped attenuator that I found I no longer required the padding as the stepper took care of the low volume channel and had a little more range to it."

Which did you use? Curious-

Thanks-

I used a Valab 23 step 100k attenuator and was pleased with the results it gave over the stock.

[Grainger49]

What I am hearing is that balance is not needed with accurate low level voltage dividers.  But my recordings are not reliably centered. 

I just live with and like noticing that the "center image" wasn't recorded dead center.  Sloppy engineer!  Shame!

[Acclaim]

I used a Valab 23 step 100k attenuator and was pleased with the results it gave over the stock.

Will try this if I'm not happy with results after adding the four resistors. Thanks for the alternative.

Found on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Valab-23-Step-Attenuator-Potentiometer-100K-Stereo-Log-/301237528225?pt=US_Amplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item462327e6a1