I have a pretty complex stereo setup in my car. (see attached picture)

My signal path goes from head unit through a line driver to a 30-band stereo equalizer, and from there it is split 5 ways and each of the five signals goes into its own small potentiometer built into the armrest between the front seats so that each signal can be individually adjusted from the driver's seat before going to one of the five class-T amplifiers. (I have one amplifier for each speaker pair: Dash, center channel, doors, rear roof, and subwoofers)

I am not happy with the potentiometers.

They do not have a wide enough range of attenuation, and they are not very linear in operation.

To clarify: the attenuation seems to range from zero attenuation (signal goes straight through) to a maximum of perhaps 20 dB. And if I set the potentiiometer to maximum attenuation, and then turn it so that the sound becomes louder, the first two-thirds of the rotation seems to have no effect at all on the sound, then in the last third of the knob turning the sound gets loud very quickly.

I want potentiometers that will give me attenuation ranging from none to at least 40 decibels. Ideally, I'd like to be able to turn the signal to the amp completely off. And I'd like some semblence of linearity, where (for example) if the potentiometer would produce 45 decibels of attenuation through its 270 degrees of rotation of the knob, I could figure on getting about 5 decibels change for each 30 degrees of knob twisting.

Just to make things harder... these potentiometers have to be pretty compact, no more than two inches / 5 CM in diameter, oh, and they have to be double pole, i.e., stereo.

To make things easier, they are handling very little current -- just the pre-amp signal from my empeg after passing through the line driver -- probably about six or eight volts, low current.

Can anybody recommmend suitable potentiometers for this application, and suggest where I might buy them?

tanstaafl.