@desktopguy any feedback on the Rothwell attenuators with the slp-05?
"Too much gain"? (Cary SLP05 question)
A few days or so ago, someone had revived an old Cary SLP 05 thread, and common to that discussion seemed to be the subject of too much gain.
My first question is: does compensating for too much gain by simply adjusting the volume knob knob down degrade the sonic quality?
My second (2 part) question relates to this quote from one of the replies in that thread:
A quick note to Pass Labs and they suggested a pair of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the amp’s inputs.
What exactly do balanced attenuators do to resolve this issue, and if placed between the preamp and the amp, would they degrade the signal path & therefore the sonic result out of the speakers?
I am a relatively new owner/operator of a SLP05 and it is in front of one of the earlier Cary V12s. I did find those balanced attenuators on ebay for (I think I remember them being) $89 a pair, which I find totally doable. I am lsitening in a (very) near field room right now, and it seem as if I do have a lot of gain. Generally the big knob is on 9 o'clock plus or minus a little bit depending upon the source material I am listening to. I am using the balanced ins and outs to & from my SLP05 and I have been given to understand that using RCAs would reduce the gain somewhat. I do have some RCAs (I am presently using Kimber Silver Streak balanced interconnects) but my collection of spare RCAs is Kimber PBJ and Monsters.
For $89 should I try putting a pair of those of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the balanced amp’s inputs?
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- 52 posts total
@docroasty, I've never heard any Cary electronics. I've used the Rothwell attenuators (single-ended, rated @-10 dB) only on the Kinki Studio THR-1 headphone amp/preamp. In that application, the Rothwells did nothing I could detect to the overall sound, beyond lowering the gain somewhat (as intended).
I'd have to hear them in a larger 2-channel system to dial in their transparent. But in in my pretty resolving, high quality desktop system, they did exactly what they're advertised to do and seemed quite transparent. |
@desktopguy ah thanks man. I read your previous post too fast. appreciate the reply though. I just ordered a set of Rothwell attenuators, so hopefully they'll do the trick. |
@immatthewj, sure. If gain issues exist in the system (in my case, due to relatively high voltage output of the upstream DAC), this results in my using the downstream volume pot (of the headphone amplifier/preamplifier being fed signal from the DAC) rotated nearly all the way counterclockwise. That means if I rotate that pot very far at all in the clockwise direction--to increase volume--the already borderline-excessive volume increases quickly and to an intolerable level.
Traditional wiper-type volume pots often exhibit sonic nonlinearity at this extreme counterclockwise rotation. Typically this is experienced as poor channel tracking, with one channel sounding louder than the other. Depending on the specific volume pot, there also might be higher than usual audio distortion at extreme counterclockwise settings.
One goal of reducing system gain via devices such as the Rothwell attenuators (installed in the RCA inputs of the amp/preamp) is to reclaim some of the lower roatitonal range of the amp/preamp’s volume pot, so I can adjusting the desired volume a little further up from the farthest counterclockwise position, thus avoiding any non-linearity at that position.
Note: with certain other types of volume pots (ie, stepped, reed-relay, or digital domain designs) there is no apparent non-linearity at the pot’s rotational extremes. Thus these pots exhibit little or no nonlinearity with in systems with excessive gain, Howeverr, there may still remain the issue of having "too few steps" for effective volume adjustment. |
- 52 posts total