Too much gain in preamp

I'm not trying to denigrate the advice on the attenuators but more than one audio dealer told me a big no on those. Of course everyone has their view.

That’s because Dealers make very little money selling Rothwell attenuators.  I would highly recommend trying them for yourself, they are not expensive.   

Oi feel for you as I had the same problem. I went to a tube preamp and it helped a decent amount.  I'm not trying to denigrate the advice on the attenuators but more than one audio dealer told me a big no on those. Of course everyone has their view. 

Well, Yogi was suggesting the use of the SYS as an attenuator between your pre and amp. George was suggesting the use of the SYS in place of your pre. 

What is the sensitivity of your Edge?

I'm not sure if the suggestion is to add the Schiit to my set up or dump the Edge altogether and just use a passive preamp. And I still do not understand why this preamp is made this way. It must be good for something on its own. Just Edge amps? Or other amps designed like an Edge? I guess I would rather know what amps would be a good match and get one rather than adding another preamp. 

thejeenyus54 OP


Just read this from Nelson Pass very carefully and let it sink in, he can’t make money from saying it, in fact it would hurt his preamp sales.

Then go and buy a $49 Schiit Sys passive preamp, about 100 x less than your  Edge S-1 preamp
https://www.schiit.com/products/sys

Nelson Pass,

“We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more.

Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.

Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.

And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp.”

Cheers George

Great suggestions. Thanks!

I don't know what your source of music is, but for me, I use jriver for playback of digital files on a computer with a Benchmark DAC. I can lower the gain through jriver or by making internal adjustments through the DAC. This may be an option for you. 

These will do the trick.
http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/attenuators.html

Use this SCHIIT SYS between the amp and preamp!
https://www.schiit.com/products/sys