I am not sure what went wrong with the link I pasted, but since it is too late to edit, I’ll try to paste it again:
Anyway, @billpete
,One question that I have is "Are the L&R input controls doing the exact same thing as the main volume pot or is there something different going on here"?
that is a great question, but it is one that I cannot answer. What I THINK is that they are essentially all doing the same thing, but that the L & R input level pots are not as good a quality as the main volume pot which is why (I THINK) that on paper, or in theory, performance would be best if they were set to maxed out and the main volume pot was the only adjustment used to adjust volume with. But I am unclear on that, so maybe we could get some clarification from @harpo75 on this, as he has been quite generous with his time providing SLP-98 and SLP-05 answers.
So, @harpo75 , on the SLP-98 (and presumably the SLP-05?) are the left and right input level pots doing the same thing as the main volume pot? And would the signal be compromised or degraded if the left and right input level pots were adjusted down from fully maxed out to compensate for all the gain of the SLP-98 (or the SLP-05) and allow for more available real estate using the main volume pot?