Am I delusional, or did adding an attenuator improve the sound?

George S. said:
The one I'm using for volume is logarithmic.
Starts with small steps, progresses to larger.
Are you going all in with a Gold Point or AliExpress?
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Logarithmic, not linear. I assumed as much, wanted to make sure.

Just at the exploratory phase now, haven’t decided which brand, vendor, or number of steps (24 should be enough?).
 
For me, the 24 step blue AliExpress Dale (all brown resistors) have been perfect and trouble free.
Back when I ordered mine, they came in two flavors.
One was sold as general purpose, linear.
Other was sold as for use with high power amps, logarithmic.
Not sure sure what's available now.
At the time thin film SMD resistors were the new thing, superseding the conventional Dale brown low noise resistor.
Maybe upgrade to a motorized volume control?
Also note those high dollar Danish Audio switches are available on AliExpress.
The blue 24 step D shaft switches have been trouble free and easy to shorten the shaft and file the flat for the original knob.
The brown 23 step switches have a oversized shaft.
 
Well, as I see that list, "L" would be linear so the "NL" would be Log.

But I could also see it as "L" being Log and "NL" being Linear...

Geppetto can probably answer better, based on the circuit design.
 
The stepped attenuator in my headphone amp was an eBay special with SMD resistors and the difference in sound quality (from a nice new Bourns pot) was staggering. I won't use a plain pot in my home-grown junk ever again!
 
I got hiss going on with the MiniDSP. I wonder if attenuators on my power amps would be the solution? I may also play with the gain jumpers on the MiniDSP first. I'd probably lean towards those stepped attenuators as pots are kinda nasty.....
 
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