sonic differences between trimpot and standard potentiometer

[rhdwave]

Has anyone noticed any sonic differences between using a trimpot or a regular pot? I could be wrong, but it seems to me that using the trimpot cuts some of the highs...any opinions?

[brett]

No difference.
Are you serious?
Both are kinda noisey (thermal noise) when high values are used (500k, 1M) coz they use carbon films.

[rhdwave]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'are you serious?'
do u mean you haven't noticed a difference between using a regular pot and a trimpot, or it's pretty obvious that there is a difference? And by noisy, you're saying both are noisy correct? I'm just trying to get an idea if i'm crazy or not or if i'm hearing that using say a 50k trimpot as opposed to a 50k linear taper pot will have a different sound quality...

thanks

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

There is no difference.
At least, there is no 'size related' difference.

[Morocotopo]

rhdwave, I don´t think you are THAT crazy... 
If Eric Johnson can hear the difference between different battery clips and cables, why not the difference between pots and trimpots?
More seriously, some people say that there´s a noise difference between 1/4 or 1/8 W and higher wattage resistors, and these are resistors, right? Ratio of resistive material amount versus resistance rating maybe? Also, pots usually have (grounded) metal casings, trimpots don´t... shielding, capacitance, noise enter the equation.
Everything makes a difference, sometimes audible, sometimes not.

Morocotopo

[rhdwave]

rhdwave, I don´t think you are THAT crazy... 
If Eric Johnson can hear the difference between different battery clips and cables, why not the difference between pots and trimpots?
More seriously, some people say that there´s a noise difference between 1/4 or 1/8 W and higher wattage resistors, and these are resistors, right? Ratio of resistive material amount versus resistance rating maybe? Also, pots usually have (grounded) metal casings, trimpots don´t... shielding, capacitance, noise enter the equation.
Everything makes a difference, sometimes audible, sometimes not.

Morocotopo

Thanks Morocotopo...

I feel a bit less insane 
I don't claim to have the ears of Eric Johnson, but it's a good point you made.  Everything does make a difference i guess.  and that's true about pots being grounded and all with the metal casings.  The example i'm thinking of specifically is i have two neovibes built in box.  The first one i kept having problems with the trimpot and so i swapped it out for a regular pot.  I definately remember saying to myself: self, this sounds different...more highs to my ears.  The second one i just completed with a trimpot and if i compare the two, the original one is definately a generally higher pitched wobble.  Now having said that, there are other differences between the two builds which i'm sure are contributing factors as well, but again, when i changed the first build from trimpot to regular pot i immediately noticed a difference.

[squidsquad]

IMHO...because trimmers use a smaller amount of carbon...they wear out rather easily & become less reliable.
I've had many fail or get weak spots & scratchiness.  I usually turn them a LOT!