Pots! What brands are good?

[makinrose]

Hi makinrose

As TUTs say, magazine reviewers and most players lack the technical knowledge to state categorically that any specific component is "bad" let alone that an entire class of component is "bad". In your relationship with your customers, YOU are the technically knowledgeable party so it is YOU that decides if a pot is good enough for you to install. You end up either hand-holding your clients, or just do the job and do not discuss parts other than that parts you use are what you know to be good.

Some techs let the customer dictate component choice and let the chips fall where they may. This is particularly sad when $$$ parts like transformers are in question. Of course, if a customer like that comes along you are not obliged to accept their work.

Speculators on the internet are simply that: speculators, which in this case means "guesser", "gossiper", "parrot" - take your pick.

I totally agree.  It's been challenge for me.    After I read the TUT series a several years ago I realized how many little things I could do better with my builds and started to employ those changes over time.  The switch over to Galactic Grounding, better filtering,  better layouts, and more use of radial caps have all improved the sound and performance of my builds enormously but have also forced me to answer lots of questions from customers. I've stopped posting pictures of the inside of my amps. In fact  I've gotten to point where I don't allow customers to pick out parts at all but I still get lots of questions.  The question I get a lot is: "Is it exactly like the original amp?".   I don't mean to complain but it's wearying process contending with "internet experts" and the advertising people buy into.  

I'm definitely going to try out few different brands of pots and see what I think is good.  Thank you Kevin.  As you know good information is hard to find and I appreciate your advice.