Attenuators

Your VCR audio is splattering and so loud that it scares the neighbors. What do you do?

You use an inline passive audio attenuator, which is a high powered name for a resistor. These resistors can be variable or fixed, homemade or commercial.

Commercial Passive Attenuators

There are a great many commercial attenuators on the market. Many of these are very specific in their use, coming in a wide variety of ohmage ranges for either balanced and unbalanced lines. The problem becomes one of knowing which one you need. Advice for these can be found on the Internet in forums and on the manufacturer's web sites. Here is an example of some basic information.

Building your own passive audio attenuator.

Passive attenuators are easy to build, but remember this type of device loads the output. So, before you begin, check and see if you need a distribution amplifier upstream..

The example is designed for unbalanced mono audio. If you need stereo, use two of them. It will probably work fine on balanced lines too, but I make no guarantees. You can use just about any type of linear 10K potentiometer or 'pot'. It needs to be a linear taper pot, not audio, because the loading pulls its output curve into something resembling an audio pot anyway. In most cases, the pot will be set and never reset again. So feel free to use the screwdriver or knob type.

Note: Beware of sliding potentiometers and Radio Shack. Sliders are of an open design and will eventually get contaminated with dust causing booms and pops. I don't know where Radio Shack gets its components, but I have bought 2 pots from them with booms and pops already built in due to internal defects.

Some links which may help:

Note: These may use audio taper pots, but the graph in my example indicates linear to be more versatile.
A simple passive line mixer
The Secret Life of Pots
Beginner's Guide to Pots
Level, Impedance and Coupling of Audio Equipment