I've made a miniature stereo using a bluetooth/MP3/SD card player and an Adafruit Class D 20 watt stereo amp, powered by a 12 volt DC plug that is split between these two devices. It's controlled by a volume knob (10K Ohm Single Linear Taper Dimmer Potentiometer with on/Off Switch) to turn the device on-off and control volume. The device turns on at about 9 oclock but jumps to a fairly high volume before I even get to 12 oclock position. No low volume to speak of. I chose a 10K Ohm pot for no particular reason. Might a 1k Ohm pot give me better low volume?

 

Welcome to AAC!

10K Ohm Single Linear Taper Dimmer Potentiometer with on/Off Switch

For audio use you want a log taper, not linear. The logarithmic type 'stretches out' the volume change at the low volume end.
A 1k pot wouldn't improve things.

 

A volume control is supposed to have a Logarithmic taper and is marked "A" so that it matches the logarithmic sensitivity of our hearing.
When you turn down a linear pot to halfway, the loudness is turned down only a little, turn it down more and it is still too loud.

 

Maybe the ground terminal on the volume control is not connected to ground?

 

You can add a resistor from the output to ground, to give the pot a quasi-log output.

The LTspice sim below shows the output on a linear scale (yellow trace) and a log (dB) scale (green trace).
The log output would be essentially a straight line for a true log.

You can adjust the value of R2 to give the results you want.

 

It is confusing to see that the yellow scale is in voltage but the green scale is in dB.

 

It is confusing to see that the yellow scale is in voltage but the green scale is in dB.

Didn't mean to confuse you with inappropriate colors(?).
Is there a standard for that?
What colors would you prefer?
There's a wide assortment available.

 

I have always used a volume control that produces 10% of max output voltage level (-20dB) when it is turned to halfway.

 

Welcome to AAC!

For audio use you want a log taper, not linear. The logarithmic type 'stretches out' the volume change at the low volume end.
A 1k pot wouldn't improve things.

Thanks for this info. I'm impressed with all of the responses to my question. Was expecting to be criticized for not providing a schematic. But so I ordered a log taper from Adafruit. Thanks again. Very helpful!

 

For the record, they are also called audio taper.

 

A volume control is supposed to have a Logarithmic taper and is marked "A"

That's not universal. Japanese-made log pots are marked A. (linear are B)
European-made log pots are marked B (linear are A)
They both agree on reverse-log being C