Adding Placette for finer volume adjustment?


I cannot get a small-enough volume gradations from the Dact 23-Step attenuator on my (tubed) preamp. I was thinking of trying a Placette passive between the preamp and my power amp. (There is a lot of gain going on with my EMM cdp, a lot with the XLR outputs, less with the SE ones, so I am usually limited to the 1st 4 steps on the attenuator.)

I don't want to muddy-up the sound.

I tried some well-regarded attenuators thingys that attach to the RCA jacks, which did give me decent gradations, but made the sound muddy and veiled, so I gave up on those.

I *LOVE* the sound of the tubed preamp I am using, but I may have to give up on it and just get another preamp so solve this attenuation problem. Oh well...

Thanks.
rgs92

Showing 2 responses by pubul57

I did the very same thing to attenuate the gain on my CAT SL1 - the Placette must be very transparent as I could not easily discern its presence in the chain, but it did solve the problem of too much gain and too large of a jump between steps - I think it would work for you for the very reason you are thinking of. I expect Detredwings approach would work too, but I would not know how to do it, and would not given the really fine steps the Placette makes possible - it is worth a try.
By the way, I do use the Lightspeed Attenuator which is the best passive I have used - including TVC AVC and both Placette RVC and buffered, but I did not recommend that of the bat since you really have to get the impedances right and I think Placette might be easier to deal with in that regard. But Endlers and EVS are probably a good approach as well, one less IC can't hurt:)