Dual volume control - it should be standard

Thanks Charles. It saved me $64,823.87. I had Circuit City mod my pre before going out of business for $176.13.

For the 1st time, I play Springsteen not only in my car but home system. I just dial the volume controls until it sound like a 192kHz/24bits download.

Basically I can dial in any sound I like, SET, OTL, Horn, SS ... whatever the mood at the moment just by playing with the DUAL volume controls. Sweet!!

Not the worst idea I've heard, but pretty damn close.

I prefer single volume control on preamp + left and right gain controls on the power amp. Preamps with L + R level controls can be hard to match channel levels if they are not stepped and accurate. As a test, try matching (continuously variable) L & R pots by ear with music, measuring the results with test tones and posting your results.

We have ears to match levels. Preamp with single control and power amp with dual gain controls should be fine too, right? Is it the same or not as having dual volume controls on the preamp? The result, I mean.

That's great if you're listening to mono recordings, but how do you know where to set the relative balances if the channels are different? Maybe some of the sounds are supposed to be off center. It would be hard to set stereo recordings by ear until you have spent quite a bit of time listenign to the recording. By then you've spent too much time obsessing and too little time enjoying.