Impedance and passive attenuation

I want to run from my Dac xlr outputs to a passive volume attenuator. Think it's a 5k pot maybe 10k......Then  From the attenuator xlr outs to powered monitors xlr in. Here's my question.... If I use the powered monitor's available parallel outputs to feed a splitter/mixer (op amps and gain in this splitter would be used for subs and other areas) would I be in trouble in any way ? Would the passive attenuator  be seeing both the powered monitors and splitter as a load and create impedence issues or is this not how it works? I basically want to feed my monitors first because going through the splitter to the monitors colors the sound a bit more ,I prefer the direct sound the best and thought this route might get me closest to direct connecting Dac to monitors sound as the splitter would power just sub amps........apologies if I'm not making sense........

Depends how the splitter is implemented in the powered monitor.  If it is active then it will most likely buffer the input so it should not be a problem.

Which monitor is it?

Cheers

Ian

scott2000 said:

The  monitors are Mackie and use no electronics to parallel the outputs. They are direct wired and the manual says the parallel output is exactly what is seen at the inputs....... So my source attenuator will see the Mackies and the splitter???? Is this correct and is this going to create any issues??? Thanks

Click to expand...

I just checked the Schematic at the Mackie web site (10 out of 10 for Mackie for publishing it). From this it is clear that the through connection is a direct connection. Internally there is a 10K load on each of the Hot and the cold pins. If you use the through to connect to a similar load then you will have 5K on the hot and also on the cold so the total is still 10K.

Basically this means you should be using a pot a lot less than 10K. 5K is probably not small enough and 1K is probably better,

Cheers

Ian