Cary Audio SLP-05 or Conrad Johnson ET7 S2

@langla4,
You are welcome. I was in that very situation years ago and learned from it😊. I am very confident that you will find the right solution to make this audio system work quite splendidly. You’ve already made some very good decisions based on what you currently have.

@avanti1960, what are the selectable gain settings for the Cary SLP-05 ?
Charles

charles,
gain is continuously variable- 0 to max on the dual front controls.  
right now i have them set to half 

My Decware 341.5 has a maximum input sensitivity of 10v or about 9db.  Full “power” is achieved at 2 volts or about 12db. So with the Cary, and correct me if I am wrong,  I could use their gain setting to stay below the maximum. I will be using the unbalanced output which, according to general thought, is about 50% of a balanced output.
Once again, thanks to all of you.  You made this mid 70 year old do the math!  It is a shame that the Luxman, Audio Research and Vinnie Rossi are way out of the price range for me.  Their specs fit nicely.

@avanti1960,
I was not aware the Cary SLP-05  has that degree of gain range flexibility.  This allows it to be compatible with practically any power amplifier. I wonder why this feature is not available with more preamplifiers. Total audio system gain is an issue that has to be accounted for. 

Charles 

I wonder why this feature is not available with more preamplifiers. Total audio system gain is an issue that has to be accounted for.

i would suspect the answer would be cost, complexity, and potentially, slight sacrifice in sonic purity as a result... but i totally agree that gain and impedance matching is critical in a system of disparate components, so the flexibility afforded by the cary design is a definite plus