Preamp gain question

Thanks you all for your input. It looks like the consensus is to try the attenuators, for under $100- it is reasonable.

everything sounds great but I can't help but think it will sound that much better if I can get into the sweet spot of the preamp rather than playing around at the bottom of the gain control.

Photon46- what would be an ideal amp/preamp gain be? Are you saying that they should be more closely matched?

The gain thru the digital front end is the same as thru the analog

Newbee- I will certainly wait on the new cartridge.

Al- Ill start with the 10db attenuators and go from there.

Again,
Thank you all

Photon46- what would be an ideal amp/preamp gain be? Are you saying that they should be more closely matched?

I think he's just saying that the overall system gain of 110db in phono mode is simply too high, particularly for a high output cartridge such as you have.

What is meant by a better match is that a very high gain preamp should be mated with a relatively low gain power amp, or vice versa, so that the overall gain doesn't become too high in relation to the cartridge output.

Hopefully the attenuators will accomplish that, although as I said it is conceivable to me that 10db will not be enough attenuation to be satisfactory. And it is conceivable to me that you will still be limited in how far you can turn up the volume control by how much voltage the output stage of the preamp can swing, which would not be helped by the attenuators because the attenuators would be connected "after" that point (further downstream, so to speak). I'm not familiar with that preamp, but the spec on output voltage range might give some feel for that.

Regards,
-- Al

I looked at the specs at the CJ site, and output voltage range is not specified. Oh, well. But it's interesting to note that in the PV10A they reduced the overall gain by 13.5db, relative to the PV10.

Regards,
-- Al

Of course the real problem is too much gain in the phono preamp stage. Attenuation should be done there, not at the output. Some preamps can have their gain easily adjusted with a jumper. If your preamp does not have jumper provision for gain adjustment it can probably be accomplished with a resistor change in the circuitry. Contact CJ.

If the problem is too much gain, the solution is removing excess gain, not attenuation. Fix the problem, don't try to hide it.

dave