Keep in mind - when a VC is added to a pair of 4 ohm speakers it drops impedence shown to the amp even lower. I would also check for proper connection of the VC also. Reversing input/output can have a dterimental effect. I'm sure you checked but just a thought. A VC combined with a 4 ohm pair of speakers will show less than 2 ohms per rail in a bridged application. Most amp lose control down at that level and causes muddy base at a minimum. I would unbridge which will clean up the sound and reduce the stress on your amp. Would also agree with previous poster and lose the VC and attenuate the line side. Just my opinion though.

I need a heavy duty volume control

Ok - I am a bit new at this but here goes. I am going to be running an ADA suite 8 whole house distribution system. I am using premise software for whole house control. My system is speced out with a Sherborn amp either 75 or 90 watt per zone, (not deceided yet) with sonnance VC.

I will be running 8 zones of speakers 2 per zone (not positive which speakers yet), most likely 8ohm.

Will sonance VC allow me to controll through my premise system, maintain sound quality and power levels. I read the Knoll system allows PC control. I will only be having one ADA keypad controller for basic configuration. Ada keypads are way to pricey for my installation.

I would appreciate any thoughts, the premise system just needs an ip address or rs232 to a gcache box to assign one.

Any input is appreciated

Just one more technical note about volume controls, this depending on the kind you are using.

A previous poster indicated that the VC may produce distortion - I believe primarily when it is transformer based and overdriven - this saturates the transformer and sounds pretty poor.

If you happen to have a resistive volume control, consider this: The control may be rated at 60 watts, for instance, but that is the power dissipation of the entire resistive element. If you make the mistake of running the amp so high that the VC is normally operating at the 9- or 10-o'clock position of the control, only about 25% of the physical portion of the resistive element is "in-circuit". In such a case, you have a 15 watt control, and it will self destruct sooner than if you ran it between 1- and 4-o'clock positions.

This was an issue in the days of wirewound pots in speakers to adjust the tweeter and midrange levels. The combination of normal oxidation plus being run at lower positions on the pots gave us some speaker repairs. Nowadays you don't find level controls on speakers much.

QQ is right. lose the passive volume control. Control the pream input of the amplifier with a line level or digital volume control. On the flip side, there are higher rating volume controls available. It sounds like the SPL requirements in this zone are great. Perhaps the rock speakers aren't adequate for the application. You might want to consider something with higher output, or greater efficiency