"Too much gain"? (Cary SLP05 question)

Hi @immatthewj,  the cost is actually $140 bench fee plus parts and labor.  He didn't specify how much is parts and labor.   Sorry about the confusion.   Anyway, I decided not to go for that mod.

Although the Cary support person is very nice, sometimes he doesn't give me a straight answer.   I was trying find out from him whether Cary recommends leaving the left & right gain dials at maximum for best sound quality.  He never really answered my question.  Instead, he offered the gain reduction modification if I think the gain is too high.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I've been setting the gains at 3 o'clock position.   I haven't tried that many different combination of gain settings between the Cary and my power Amp.   I might try to do that when I get my unit back.    

Looks like my unit is pretty much fixed, they have been running it continuously over the weekend to make sure everything is alright.   I expect them to ship it back to me some time this week.    I'll try to post an update once I get it back.

@xcool the confusion is not your fault. I just would have thought that for a job parts + whatever the hourly rate for labor is would have covered a job. I may be out of touch on that as I really try to farm as little as possible out. Like for The Ultimate Upgrade, for example, they give you what the rate is for the job (kind of like getting your ball-joints on your auto replaced); I wonder why they don’t do that for the Gain Reduction Mod.

Although the Cary support person is very nice, sometimes he doesn’t give me a straight answer [. . .] He never really answered my question.

Haha. Yeah. There was a time when I used to rave to anyone who would listen to me about Cary Audio’s telephone tech support. I will say no more on that subject.

As far as using the ’input level’ pots in conjunction with the ’listening level’ (the big knob) pot to compensate for gain, reading through the replies I have received, there do seem to be two schools of thought re that. As I typed in one of my last responses to a reply, way back when I bought my Dennis Had "hot-rodded" SLP90, Dennis must have felt that L & R input level pots were, at least to some degree, degrading the signal path (but that was 30 years or so ago he built that preamp, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the pots are better now a days). I said I would say no more about a certain subject, but I really don’t see why Cary Support cannot provide a simple straight answer on that. Oh well, one of many things in life that I do not understand.

So, not to be redundant (but I guess I constantly am), but for me the bottom line is that I can find a volume setting that makes me happy, and if there is no difference in sonic quality between a certain volume at 3 o-clock & that same volume at 6 o-clock (and reading replies, there seem to be a couple of schools of thought on that as well) I am good with it as it is. I think it would be useless to try and get a straight answer from CAD Support on that also.

Hey, it is real good to hear that you will be reunited with your SLP shortly. I bet you are loving that news. And since you didn’t mention it, I am assuming that, at least for the time being, they didn’t tell you what was broke..

The Roth well attenuators work well with very minimal loss of micro detail 

in a very high resolution system, depending on quality of cables and rest od system .what is in your Cary for a volume attenuator is key, if it is a Alps volume pot that is cheap and seen as a silver round drop ,just a plastic conductive wiper.

ifitis a resistive ladder attenuators then it should not me much of a issue.

The discussion on this topic is very puzzling.  The idea that people would buy attenuators or a gain reduction mod for their SLP 05 is something I see and hear no reason for.  

Buy a NOS rectifier and some 6SN7 tubes.  Use the balanced connections.  Optimize your interconnects.  Absolutely.  

Set the gain by listening to your highest output source with the gain knobs set at full.  According to an old Stereophile review this effectively eliminates their circuitry. But does it sound the best?  

Not for me.  Too much gain and the sound was edgy at low volume levels.  

Backing off the gain knobs gradually until it sounds best (listen carefully) and you are good to go.  It sounds amazing!  The sound will be better at the same net loudness levels.  It works!  

Backing off the gain knobs gradually until it sounds best (listen carefully) and you are good to go.

@avanti1960 I am actually going to try this. With your L and R ’input level’ knobs backed off to where you feel is optimal, where is your ’listening level’ (the big knob) usually at?

Oh, and on edit:  I do have some vintage RCA black glass vt231s in my balanced input sockets (#3 & #6) and I am working on four more.  I am also working on a vintage 5AR4.