Preamp has too much gain

OP: 

Can you give us a little more detail?

Is the amp too loud or do you have too much noise?

If the amp is too loud a passive attenuator would work.  Having said that, there are many examples of preamps with too much gain, and therefore too much noise.

Which is you?

Erik

I had a preamp with a Goldpoint stepped volume pot with too much gain and installed Takman resistors on the pot and fixed the problem.

In-between the pre and power amplifier, insert another passive preamp ( without power), that let you adjust anytime in the future.

Hopefully after 16 years, he was able to figure it out. 

LOL, maybe he did 16 years ago but now this thread came back to life I need some help with my Audio Research LS1 Line Stage's gain control.

I am streaming Eversolo DMP-A6 into the LS1 at line level.  A6 is using volume bypass but it is so loud that I can use only 1-2 clicks on the LS1 gain level knob.

I then use the CD inputs on the LS1 because it lowers the input by 10db and now I can use 3-4 clicks on the gain knob but it is still far below the 9 o'clock position. Reading from above I now know this can impact the sound quality.

I do have the option of turning the volume bypass off in the A6 and it can lower the volume coming out of the streamer.  However, that is a digital volume control and my understanding is attenuating it will impact the dynamic frequency and is not ideal.

The LS1 user manual did mention that doing some de-soldering "gain change connection" on the circuit board can reduce all line inputs by 6 db.  Is this the best way to go or is there an easier way?

The power amp is a Classe CA-2200 (200W x 2).

Thanks for any help on the subject!