Volume control knobs

**ognat42** · 05-03-2008, 12:47 PM

Hi all...I'm installing a car stereo in my shop because of its small footprint. I also want to hook up two speakers inside and two outside each pair with its own volume control. That way the head unit volume acts as master and then I can control the speakers individually.

My challenge has been in finding reasonably sized controls. All I could find are these huge in-wall controls made for home theaters. There's got to be something smaller out there. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sam

**scott_fx** · 05-03-2008, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by ognat42

Hi all...I'm installing a car stereo in my shop because of its small footprint. I also want to hook up two speakers inside and two outside each pair with its own volume control. That way the head unit volume acts as master and then I can control the speakers individually.

My challenge has been in finding reasonably sized controls. All I could find are these huge in-wall controls made for home theaters. There's got to be something smaller out there. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sam

how much are you willing to spend? you could use an l-pad or a twistedpear audio stepped attenuator

**durwood** · 05-04-2008, 11:00 AM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1076188-post5.html

^^That will work if have amplifiers, but if you are going through the headunit amplifier there are controls called fader.

**ognat42** · 05-04-2008, 01:27 PM

thank you all for the replies. I'm not looking at spending a small fortune but within a $100 is acceptable. Wasn't planning on installing amplifiers, nor did I want to do any soldering

. I'll search for the faders. They seem to be just what I want.

**StereoInstaller** · 05-05-2008, 10:39 AM

I would not recommend using an in-wall type attenuator.

There are 2 reasons: (without going deep in technical crap)
1. Car stereo gear is simply not robust enough to handle the continuous use when feeding a resistive load.
2. Most inwall VCs have a shared ground path, most car stereos have to be 100% isolated.

If size is the only criteria, you might want to find a good brand name micro system. It is going to way more stable, have a decent remote, likely better sound, deal just fine with inwall VCs, easy to add subwoofers should you get the urge, etc...

HTH!
Luke