potentiometers, linear vs audio

[scole]

i know the curve is different, but what is physically different between a linear and audio pot? can an audio be converted to linear?

[JoeM]

This might help:

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folder...s/potscret.htm

[Chuck H]

Great article. But assuming we're just buying pots as they are offered believing they'll be up to any task, it's worth mentioning that in general audio pots are typically rated for half the wattage of the linear pots they are sold with. No big deal in a guitar. But in an amp circuit it can matter. So it's worth checking the watts on pots. Especially audio.

Chuck

[tubeswell]

Can an audio be converted to linear?

Not sure about whether you can convert audio to linear, but a linear can be converted to audio (either log or antilog, or both), with tapering resistors. Can give you a much better taper too (compared the 'two-line curves' you typically see in off-the-shelf audio pots)

I worked out an MS Excel spreadsheet last year for plotting tapers (it can garph the tables and all - real pretty). Don't know if it will upload here tho' (since I tried uploading it a while back and the uploaded file wasn't recognised)

[jrfrond]

What I'd like to point out, and is rarely explained, is the origin of the word "taper".

On an audio-taper pot, back in the good ol' days when you could actually get REAL ones, the carbon track in the pot started out wide (lots of resistance) and progress to narrow (least resistance). If you were to uncurl the carbon track, it would be cone-shaped, or "tapered". A linear-taper track had perfectly parallel sides, and other tapers were created according to need. Just FYI.....

Having said that, I haven't seen a REALLY good audio taper pot in years, unless you decide to fork over big bucks for stuff by Precision Electronic or (for guitar) RS Super Pots.