Can you lower gain requirements on tube amp?

Did you talk with Dennis at Cary;maybe he can mod your amp to handle the input voltage swing that your preamp is outputing to the Cary's.

Dump the TVC for a true active preamp with good impedance specs. That will solve it the fastest, and probably cheapest at this point, plus add some missing dynamics and body which is why your looking to do this all in the first place!

Good luck

I have never measured the difference in db's at the speaker between each output level so this is a WAG, but I think the increase from 2 to 3.5v (or 4v) would be at least 9 or more db's.

Doubling the voltage is an increase of 6dB.

It is often said that a good rule of thumb for putting db volume changes in perspective is that a 10db increase subjectively sounds "twice as loud."

It is also important to keep in mind that the subjective perception of loudness is highly dependent on the dynamic range of the particular piece of music. A classical symphony, for instance, typically covers an enormous decibel range, from the soft passages (which typically comprise most of the music) to orchestral peaks. That will result in a given volume control setting producing a much lower subjective perception of loudness than the same setting would produce on highly compressed material (that maintains a fairly constant volume), such as many popular releases.

Re voltage increase vs. db increase, Kirkus is of course correct, but I'll add that the formula to convert the ratio of two voltages to db is 20*log(v1/v2), where v1 is one of the voltages, v2 is the other, the asterisk denotes multiplication, and "log" is logarithm (base-10). If you put the smaller number on top you will get a negative result; if you put the larger number on top you will get the same answer but with a positive sign.

To convert two power levels to db, the formula would be 10*log(P1/P2).

A given db change anywhere in the path through the system will produce the same resultant volume change, whether it is output voltage, input sensitivity, or speaker efficiency. Assuming, of course, that nothing is clipped or overdriven as a result.

Regards,
-- Al

Well it sounded like 9db's! :-)

Thanks Almarg for the info. I just never thought that db's and v's might share the same relationships. Makes sense though...........when I THINK about it.