Gain Structure help, Mcintosh D100 to Primalune tube amp

You have way too much gain. And the volume control in the D100 is digital domain, so anything below 3/4 and you run the risk of "bit stripping" the music

Your Primaluna input sens is about normal, and high impedance. If you use the fixed outputs of the D100, they are 1/4 the level of the variable.

You could then use a $49 Shitt sys and run the fixed output of the D100 and use the Schitt's level control. 

Or using the variable out you could turn it up full, then for the loudest you want to hear and adjust the Shitt to that level, then you can still lower the remote level up and down but you’ll be using it the top 1/4 of full. So no "bit stripping"

http://schiit.com/products/sys

Don’t bother with those inline attenuators, I’ve haven’t heard any that sound good.

Cheers George

Yes you can still use the remote variable out of the D100, but preset the Schitt so the maximum out of the D100 is the loudest you ever want to go. In other-words the Schitt becomes a fixed attenuator, and you still have the remote volume of the D100 to use.

The whole idea is to be able use the D100 variable output in it’s top 1/4 of the range so you don’t run the risk of "bit stripping"

I’ll try to explain:

The reason to use the Schitt, is that we know it’s a 10kohm passive which is still a perfect impedance match with your D100 (150ohm) and Primaluna amp (100kohm). Where inline attentuators like Rothwells and the one you mention can have impedance mismatches as we don’t know what series shunt resistors have been used inside them.

Cheers George