Anyone actually compare the performance of the Bourns / Spectrol / Vishay to the trimmers by Bochen, Benteng, Baoter and other Chinese brands?
Good or bad experiences?
Isn’t 3296 a Mil designation requiring conformance as with RN resistors for example?
Good or bad experiences?
Isn’t 3296 a Mil designation requiring conformance as with RN resistors for example?
I've never had any issues with the cheap ones, but I have heard stories about questionable reliability and that's what would concern me. If a trimmer were to fail, in some cases it would be pretty catastrophic event and in others less so.
I have been caught out with ebay and cheap Chinese components a few times.
Transistors blowing up after 10 minutes while a genuine replacement lasted forever.
I tend to use RS Components and Farnell now and rarely have any problems.
RS does free p+p whatever the value of the order and next day delivery, you cant say fairer than that.
Transistors blowing up after 10 minutes while a genuine replacement lasted forever.
I tend to use RS Components and Farnell now and rarely have any problems.
RS does free p+p whatever the value of the order and next day delivery, you cant say fairer than that.
I have experience on mixer faders.
The chinese ones have a flimsy feel and sometimes too smooth, genuine parts last more.
The chinese ones have a flimsy feel and sometimes too smooth, genuine parts last more.
Most of the Chinese trimmers, like Bentang, are Bourns knockoffs. Bourns has a stylized 'B" as its logo, and The Bentang pots I saw use the same stylized 'B', so at first glance, they look like Bourns pots. The particular shade of blue used in Bourns trimmer pots is trademarked and cannot be used by anyone else to color their trimmer pots. I am a Bourns retiree.
Seems the adage you get what you pay for still applies.
Silly of me for thinking otherwise.
I’ll stick with the Bourns products.
It seems there are many trimmers out there claiming to be of the 3296 series. I was not sure if they were comparable, like RN resistors.
http://www.hobbytronics.co.za/Content/external/936/3296.pdf
850W1K (3296W-1-102): Weston Electronics : 3296 - 3/8" Square 1K Ω 25-Turn Trimmer Potentiometer : Passive Components
Comparison of Bourns vs knockoffs here:
MUFF WIGGLER :: View topic - Ident-a-pot Vol. 2 (Bourns Trimmer - fake or not)
Silly of me for thinking otherwise.
I’ll stick with the Bourns products.
It seems there are many trimmers out there claiming to be of the 3296 series. I was not sure if they were comparable, like RN resistors.
http://www.hobbytronics.co.za/Content/external/936/3296.pdf
850W1K (3296W-1-102): Weston Electronics : 3296 - 3/8" Square 1K Ω 25-Turn Trimmer Potentiometer : Passive Components
Comparison of Bourns vs knockoffs here:
MUFF WIGGLER :: View topic - Ident-a-pot Vol. 2 (Bourns Trimmer - fake or not)
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So am I correct to assume the 3296 trimmers are exclusive to Bourns and not manufactured by other companies?
3296 is a model of Bourns multi-turn Trimpot. 'Trimpot' is a registered Bourns trademark. 3296 is a 10-turn 0.5W trimmer that comes in a range of 10 ohms to 2 megohms. See
Multiturn Trimpot Trimming Potentiometers - Bourns
I used to build quite a few Pass amps (I have five in various stages of undress all over the house), and all of them need two trimmers per channel. The amps all tend to run quite hot. The Chinese trimmers don't make it past six months, as a result the bias tends to go all over the place.
When replaced with genuine Vishay or Bourns product, the lifetime is really long - but still finite. I've not seen a trimmer fail in six years on the builds that used the genuine parts. For low-criticality applications (where the loss of wiper contact would be benign) or for testing use the cheap ones are usable - I use them for bias adjustment in Class AB amps now and then and they work fine. But there is a pretty big difference in both price and reliability.
When replaced with genuine Vishay or Bourns product, the lifetime is really long - but still finite. I've not seen a trimmer fail in six years on the builds that used the genuine parts. For low-criticality applications (where the loss of wiper contact would be benign) or for testing use the cheap ones are usable - I use them for bias adjustment in Class AB amps now and then and they work fine. But there is a pretty big difference in both price and reliability.
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