Passive & Tubed pre-amps to power amp at same time?

"Atmasphere - Good one. That would allow me to do what Zd suggested 6 posts above yours. He was thinking my CDP had a volume control (at least, that's how I read it). Re passives' sensitivity to ICs, I assume this would be to ICs on the output side of the pre-amp?"

Sorry. I wasn't mistaken, just confused. I was commenting on a few different threads about digital sources with volume controls. The brands were Esoteric and Wadia. And since they both use Teac transports, I somehow allowed my fingers to get the best of me.

The IC's and the passive would be on the input side of the preamp, not the output. Depending on how much room you have on your shelf, you may be able to get away 1 pair of IC's and 1 pair of jumpers. You'll only need to set the volume on the passive once. After that, you'll just use the one on your preamp. Just put the passive behind the CD player close enough to use jumpers. Also, if you don't have really deep shelves that extend too far behind the components, you can probably get away with a 1/2 meter IC. That will keep the lengths down to a minimum, as well as cost.

Al - Harrison Labs -12dB attenuators arrived today. Running them at the input to my tube pre-amp with CDP as source. They seem to work as advertised. I've picked up (depending on how loud the CD is) 30-60 degrees of additional volume knob rotation to get to my preferred listening level; almost 90 on an older CD that has always seemed "lower volume" to me. So far, I don't notice any negative sonic effects. Thanks very much for the suggestion. I haven't yet made the resistance measurements but will.

Al - Results (all as read) of the measurements you suggested making for the Harrison Labs 12dB attenuators:
Across input/output pins
#1 attenuator 6.77 ohms
#2 attenuator 6.75 ohms
Across ground sleeve & output pin
#1 2.19
#2 2.18
all measurements made using 20K scale setting
FWIW - resistance across input pin to ground sleeve is ~9 (as read, 8.97 & 8.95 respectively).

Al - not sure what multiplier to use for this scale...x10K or x20K?. Let me know if you will. Thanks for your time.

Those numbers are consistent with the specified 12 db of attenuation, and the measurements between the input pins and the ground sleeves of the output connectors correspond, as can be expected, to the sum of the other two measurements. The actual attenuation, btw, will be a bit greater than 12 db depending on the input impedance of the component into which the attenuators are connected, because that input impedance will be in parallel with the 2.19K/2.18K resistors, resulting in a combined impedance that is at least slightly lower than those values.

I'm puzzled, though, by the scale factor business. It shouldn't matter whether you use x10K or x20K, because the numeric reading would change accordingly. But multiplying each of the measured results by the x20K setting you used gives resistances that are much higher than I would expect, and higher than would seem to be desirable, even though they are in the right proportion to each other. If you indicate the make and model of the specific multimeter, it may allow me to shed some further light on this.

Also, I'll mention that when measuring relatively high resistances it would be a good idea to make a point of not having your fingers on the conductive part of at least one of the two multimeter leads. Otherwise the reading may be affected by the resistance of your skin and body.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al - thanks for the reply. I meant to specify the meter used in my earlier note but it slipped my mind. It is a Craftsman Model 82015. I'm thinking the 20K setting I used is good for measuring resistances in the range of 20-200K ohms. The next lower setting is for 2000 ohms. The next higher for 200K. Not sure why things are "denominated" in 2s vs 1s. Sorry if I introduced some confusion - there is no 'x' symbol associated with the scale labels for the meter dial. What multiplier to use was my question only. Let me know if you find something helpful - or other thoughts. Thanks as always. (I well might repeat the measurements taking care not to hold the leads while doing so...I hadn't taken this precaution earlier - but am hopeful they won't change things significantly if current values are sort of "as expected).