OK let me tell you my experience. I have a Pass Labs CA160.8 amp connected to an Audio Research pre with Avantgarde horn speakers (16 ohm). The gain matching was all wrong. You could not move the volume button past a certain level without the speakers being ear splitting. In addition the background noise was nearly as loud as the music. Purchased a set of attenuators. Problem solved. Great sound … volume back under control and all background noise gone. I bought Rothwell Attenuators on line. You can select the amount of attenuation you like (recall there are three choices/levels). Just buy these. Price is OK and believe me they work like a charm. Don’t cheap out to save $30 … these will likely be the least expensive bit of equipment you will have in your audio chain.
"Too much gain"? (Cary SLP05 question)
A few days or so ago, someone had revived an old Cary SLP 05 thread, and common to that discussion seemed to be the subject of too much gain.
My first question is: does compensating for too much gain by simply adjusting the volume knob knob down degrade the sonic quality?
My second (2 part) question relates to this quote from one of the replies in that thread:
A quick note to Pass Labs and they suggested a pair of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the amp’s inputs.
What exactly do balanced attenuators do to resolve this issue, and if placed between the preamp and the amp, would they degrade the signal path & therefore the sonic result out of the speakers?
I am a relatively new owner/operator of a SLP05 and it is in front of one of the earlier Cary V12s. I did find those balanced attenuators on ebay for (I think I remember them being) $89 a pair, which I find totally doable. I am lsitening in a (very) near field room right now, and it seem as if I do have a lot of gain. Generally the big knob is on 9 o'clock plus or minus a little bit depending upon the source material I am listening to. I am using the balanced ins and outs to & from my SLP05 and I have been given to understand that using RCAs would reduce the gain somewhat. I do have some RCAs (I am presently using Kimber Silver Streak balanced interconnects) but my collection of spare RCAs is Kimber PBJ and Monsters.
For $89 should I try putting a pair of those of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the balanced amp’s inputs?