Making speakers quieter (less sensitive!)

Is there a dead easy way of making speakers less efficient, without ballsing up the sound too much? My bedroom system is now finally in Exeter, and sounding fairly decent. Except for some reason it sounds way louder in the new room for a given volume, so the NAIT's volume control is being a pain.

Can I bung a resistor across the terminals of the speakers to make them say, 3db less efficent? The Rega Kytes and Mordaunt-Short MS25is both seem to be fairly efficient, so I'm a bit stumped...

 

turn the volume control down

 

would it be possible to use attenuators on the IC's to reduce the signal?

 

Damp your room, but just don't overdo it. Place curtains around to minimize reflections. That could be one thing causing the "loud" sound. A cheap "tweak" and you don't have to spend on attenuators. If this doesn't work, follow the madhippy's no cost solution.

regards

 

Dom, I think this is a fact of life with older Naim gear. My 42.5 is very loud at 8 o'clock and too loud at 9 o'clock.

Try a pair of Rothwell in-line attenuators. Stick the RCA ends of your source cable into them to drop the output by around 10dB. Seem to work without causing any sonic problems, I used to use them between my Sugden pre and power. They're about £40 a pair, there might be cheaper alternatives (Hippy could probably knock something together for the price of a few beers )

-- Ian

 

Rothwell here !

 

Urm - two probs with the Rothwells - they're 40 quid each (so that's 160 quid - all sources in use!) and there's no room round the back of the amp on the POS "rack" to fit any more extension to the plugs...

Turning it down won't work - unless I use the balance (which is a right royal PITA).

SO would resistors work???

It's a NAIT3 by the way, so not AS bad as an earlier NAIT but still not ideal. I'll probaby just say sod it and swap it for the Rega Mira so I have full remote in the bedroom - just wander if I'll get an earth loop on the AV amp...

 

Be careful with putting resistors in parallel with the speaker outlets. Try them in series with the ICs.

 

In-line attenuators like the rothwells are the way to go. You could make your own quite cheaply with some high-grade resistors.

 

what am I missing here? Why can't you (as hippy says) just turn the volume down?

 

Probably because the volume control is not very well matched on both channels at that position.

I recommend throwing a blanket over them

 

If you need HQ res....I've about 20k number Holco's down to 0.01% various values. I made a pair of attenuators using 10k ohm but that only knocked back the volume a few points [couple of db] I can let you have the parts or build for you PM if intrested.

 

But ... by just using resistors on the speaker end, you're effectively changing the load on the amplifier. Most amps are designed to drive between 4 and 8 ohms... and if you change this, the audio quality may suffer as a consequence.

I suspect this may be down to the design of the amp in question ... but, I always figured attenuators were expensive as a) they attenuate the signal but b) don't vary the impedence match between devices.

They'd probably make less of a difference to impedence when used at line level, but ... then of course they'd also possibly introduce more noise.

Anyway - the point of my post - is that it may not just be as simple as using a resistor.

 

MO - the volume I can realistically play at late at night is about 8.1 on the volume dial (from 8!!) - with the volume at the 9.30 position it's getting very loud, and at 11, well, ahem, for a 30 watt amp, it sounds BLOODY loud...!

Vinyl isn't so bad, but even FM radio has to be listened to at around the 8.1 position - having to balance the channels with volume AND balance controls is a PITA of the highest order.

Mind you, the main reason I need to play through speakers is 'cos I bust one of my tape DIN leads - trying to split it so I could wire my headphone amp in. I have now found a spare lead which (hopefully) wasn't busted by my efforts, so I'm going to rewire the rig either tonight or tomorrow to see how it fares...

And yeah - just thought, resistors WILL make the speaker load go funny - so will have to fiddle with this one (or get Linn Kans with a sensitivity of -100000db watt/metre

 

can you split the link between pre and power amp?much nicer place to attenuate the signal,otherwise your going to need some rather hefty resistors,normal 1/4 watt jobbies may get a bit too warm, also L-pads might be worth a look

 

alternativly elect a source for late night listening and rothwell that one. I use rothwell between power and mono blocks and it works very well.

 

Hi Dom,

I would go with the attenuator fix as solution. You could go for a Rothwell copy or solder into the phono plug.

You could go for the L Pad (2 resistors) or the T pad (3 resistors)

Here are some sites which show you how & what values.


http://www.live-audio.com/studyhall/padcalc.pdf

http://www.fmsystems-inc.com/eng_tee.htm

http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/


Here are some speaker attenuators

http://www.webervst.com/lpad.htm


Another way to do it would be to make up a volume control with flying leads.

Look below for details.

http://www.goldpt.com/info.html

Look at figure 1 & 2

build a lead with pot on it. It doesn't have to cost much. Use a 50K pot for example & some old cable. Place between, say you cd player & amp. Turn your amp on to the level you find it too loud, make sure the home made pot is on max volume.

From this too loud state turn the homemade pot down until you get the volume you like. At this point, you can then measure the resistances of the input (in & ground) & output (out & ground) of the pot. These values will give you the values of resistance to aim for on a L Pad.

SCIDB

 

Hello SCIB. I onced contacted Rothwell and inquired about the appropriate attenuators for my cdp and amps. They recommended me -a 10db attenuators and explained that the output voltage of my cdp and input sensitivity of my amps are not reliable as quoted by the manufacturers. So I presumed they just sort of "estimated" the attenuators that would fit into my kits. How would i know then if I'm getting the right one?

Also, is it really worth it using these? I once asked here in the forum what real benefits do these give you if it's just a matter of volume output. Unless they improve definition, extension of frequencies or enhancement of these, what's the real deal here?


regards

 

So this thread is about making the hifi play less loudly?

Can somebody explain that concept please?



:gould: :nigel:

 

GrahamN - YAWN....

I need ALL sources bar vinyl into my amp to be quieter - because otherwise I only get the left channel at a reasonable late night level because the volume pot, at the usable range I need, isn't well balanced. Therefore I need to make the sources quieter so the volume pot works in stereo over the lower volume range late at night. That's the THIRD time I've explained it now - gets a bit tedious. Sorry to sound off - been a long day!

Phew - moving on...

SCIDB - solder = no go with my eyesight. Guess I'll just have to live with the volume thing for now.

I'll probably just say sod it and have the NAIT in the main room and the Rega Mira in the bedroom - although I think the NAIT will hum on AV due to earth loops knowing my luck....