Why don't manufacturers use more stepped knobs?

[Bump Music]

I like to buy everything in stereo, but I find it very difficult to find gear that has stepped knobs.

Take my Fatso for example. I looooooove this box more and more everyday. But if it's primary purpose was for stereo sources (as the manual says), why wouldn' they use stepped knobs for easy recall and L/R balance?

Same thing with the Portico and any mix buss comp.

I know it's more expensive, but surely it can't be THAT expensive to swap out a few input and output knobs.

It just takes me so frickin long to balance everything with 1khz tones.

And I know these manufacturers are WAAAAAAY smarter than I am, so there MUST be a legitimate reason.

Anyone?

[bpatural]

It's more expensive...you should just take the pieces to annoy you to a tech to do this mod for you if it's worth the money.
Personally I think the fatso knobs are the best out there for recall (short of actually being stepped).
-Brian

[Bump Music]

Originally Posted by bpatural

It's more expensive...you should just take the pieces to annoy you to a tech to do this mod for you if it's worth the money.
Personally I think the fatso knobs are the best out there for recall (short of actually being stepped).
-Brian

I agree with you about the Fatso knobs, but stepped would still make my life waaay easier. I've taken pieces to my tech for stepped knobs, but it's not easy to find a swtich with the same logarithmic taper (is that the right term?) as the pots.

[lemix]

Why don't manufacturers use more stepped knobs?

They couldn't charge you more for the "Mastering" versions

[Bob Olhsson]

Pots are rarely found in today's consumer gear which has made them very expensive. Fake stepped pots are even worse than unstepped ones because you can't match settings. Real stepped attenuators are switches with resistors soldered to them. They are so expensive that I suspect nobody marks their mastering versions up beyond the actual additional cost.

[Jim Williams]

Cheap asian pots are available with 21 to 42 steps, just a clicker to stop the pot rotation. They are typically 20% tolerance so they won't match anyway.

What's worse, a pot without detents or one that won't match at the detents?

Of course, one can find conductive plastic pots at 10% tolerance for around $8 each with a 500 piece minimum order to manufacture, then one could go about hand selecting them to match.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by Bump Music

I know it's more expensive, but surely it can't be THAT expensive to swap out a few input and output knobs.

Street price for a dual pot is around 10-20€, street price for a stepped dual switch including resistors would be something like 100-200€. Then you Fatso would cost up to 800€ more! And then we have to count in the salary for that poor person who going to solder at least 192 resistors!

/Cojo

[Bump Music]

Originally Posted by Cojo

Street price for a dual pot is around 10-20€, street price for a stepped dual switch including resistors would be something like 100-200€. Then you Fatso would cost up to 800€ more! And then we have to count in the salary for that poor person who going to solder at least 192 resistors!

/Cojo

Damn

[bpatural]

Wow! that's really expensive...no wonder these neve reissues are just as expensive as used ones.
-brian