How do I reduce the overall gain in my preamp ?

I put a passive line stage in my tape loop - for casual listening i have remote control also. works fine. When i'm feeling picky about sound i simply flip the switch turning off the tape loop. If you can accept some minimal signal loss (there will always be some) you can put a passive preamp of high quality between your amp and preamp but you must deal with the cable between the passive and the amp carefully to minimize the loss. I've done this with some success - not as funky as it sounds, but you'll get booted out of the audiophile corp if you tell anyone you did it!

I owned an ARC LS-1 and also had to tame this monster!
Call Lenard (at the ARC factory) and tell him your problem.
He sent me a diagram of the solder traces (bottom of circuit board) and told me where to sever a trace to reduce overall gain (it worked, of course).

I would not try to modify your preamp.

I would look at getting a different preamp or look at getting a source that outputs less. Or look at getting speakers that are less sensative.

Just my 2c.

KF

KF, I believe you meant poweramp and not speakers.

If poweramp is sencitive and source component(s) with high output why not going for passive preamp and sell the line-stage?

Hi Albert
Dweller's suggestion is definitely the best of the above. If you aren't able to follow the mod instructions for lack of technical know-how, a local repair shop should do this for you fairly inexpensively. Retain the mod instructions for future reversal in case you decide to sell it later on.
Or insert a quality passive attenuator into the tape loop, as an aside on Newbee's suggestion.