Too Much Gain the Issue ? (preamp and amp)

@avanti1960 Wrote:

thanks so far.

couple things-

not really a brigtness issue, more like slightly hissy treble.

my pass xa25 sounds perfectly clean

cary can adjust the gain but i am not willing to go down that road

That’s because the Voltage gain is lower, on the Pass Labs XA25 amp which is 20dB gain and the Pass Labs XA30.8 amp is 26dB gain lower, gain less hiss. 😎

Mike

I remember posting a similar question (Cary SLP 05 & lots of gain) and at the time I thought that the consensus was that a attenuators simply added another volume control(s) in the signal chain?

@avanti1960 is the XA30.8 brand new?

i am willing to try attenuators but are they any more effective than the front panel level controls?  which are variable resistors, no?

@audphile1 

not new, a few years old.