2. amps-preamps
  3. 176382-171531

"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?

 

immatthewj
avanti1960
1,551 posts
 

@jaybe 

one more thing related to the SLP 05 gain settings- speaker efficiency.  with my 90db Spendor towers they sound best with the RCA lower output connections into my 29 db McIntosh amp.  

with my less sensitive Dynaudio towers they sound best with the full gain using the balanced connections. 

testrun
250 posts
 

 @steakster - Thanks for the link.

 

 

khloebo
11 posts
 

Dang, typed a bunch of stuff and the site freaked out!  Not going to spend more time trying to deal with the picture upload (archaic), but basically I get ~2/16th of a rotation for XLR from 0 to 68 dB at 15', and a a bit more than 3/16th for RCA.

If I want to use volume on the Cary with XLR I set -46dB on the goldpoint pots (dump 99.5% of signal to ground - linear??) and it sits around 2pm, so 1/2 a rotation.  I need a scope to see what is really going on, gut says that can't be linear but only measurements can be trusted here.

 

 

 

jaybe
803 posts
 

@avanti1960 

Appreciate your input. I’m running Focal Sopras with 89db sensitivity, so fairly high. Which might have exacerbated the gain issue.

It’s actually your posts that go back a few years that got me looking into the Cary. You were very instrumental in my research. Also your many posts about your old Rogue and 12AU7 tubes. Followed your lead on a lot of that. I still have the RP-7 and will be keeping it as a back up. I love the looks of the Cary and it was not an easy decision to go in another direction. I might still be tempted to go for a used Cary to try out if the timing is right. For now I’ve thrown my lot in with the Spatial Audio Raven and hope to get in a post about it in the near future. The icing on the cake for that unit is a full function remote. Thanks.

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