"Too much gain"? (Cary SLP05 question)

I have received the message below verbatim from Cary today when inquiring about the upgrade gain, the pots, and any difference between balanced and RCA sound quality. Note an earlier post on this thread said the pots were "cheap Honeywell pots". 

The gain is reduced by 6db for both XLR and RCA.

The volume pot is an Alps motorized pot custom made for us by Alps in Japan. The balance pots are made by Bourns. Both brands are highly regarded and make excellent components. These are not inexpensive components.

I think differences in sound quality between RCA and balanced could result from several factors – cables, length of cable runs, etc.  Inherently, I think both are excellent

The SLP-05 is one of the most highly regarded preamps on the market. It has been around for many years. This doesn’t happen by accident

@jaybe  they might have changed the LR balance pots, mine clearly were labelled Honeywell and were designed for ATVs and crude motorized controls.  Re the Alps, I doubt it looking at the Alps component catalog.  If they still had the premium $100 pot from 20 years ago I would have bought that in a flash.   Cary's sales volume, and anybody else for that matter, is way too small to justify custom design and production.  

Aric can also fine tune the output capacitor to match amps.  Carys ~4400 ohm output presents rolloff in low frequecies regardless.  

Check remote function.  In my unit, it controls volume and nothing else.  The buttons are for the cinema unit I think.

Def have a return option, buying new unheard is a big risk.  Used market ok but reselling these units can take over a year unless you want to burn some cash.  Buying hifi is getting harder as dealers close shop.

Check remote function.  In my unit, it controls volume and nothing else.  The buttons are for the cinema unit I think.

Volume is all that  the remote does for my SLP-05.

By virtue of the high gain, I’m assuming the volume will be set relatively low when the 2 gain pots are full on. This to me seems like the volume adjustment will be difficult, as even small adjustments will result in big changes.

I use the balanced ins and outs and I feel the soundstage is more open with more bloom that way; however, there is not a lot of available real estae on the main volume knob in my small room.  But that part really didn't turn out to be a big issue . . . my main concern is whether it would sound better if I could get the same volume with the pot in a higher position.

Aric has been very helpful in our emails and I feel he would be a great guy to deal with if I were to own one of his units. The communications from Cary have been somewhat different.

Tech support from CAD used to be soooo good.  That was part of what made me a fan of Cary in the old days.  Their customer service has changed a lot.

Thanks all for the recent input and glad that many are happy with the Carey. But the gain uncertainty, age of the design, maybe the questionable customer service and odd feedback from the sales manager don't sit well with me. I've decided on a different 6NS7-based preamp for now.

Has anyone found an aftermarket simple remote that works with the current Cary SLP 05?  Just looking for a remote to handle volume.  More function is ok but volume is mandatory.  Thanks