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"Too much gain"? (Cary SLP05 question)

A few days or so ago, someone had revived an old Cary SLP 05 thread, and common to that discussion seemed to be the subject of too much gain. 

My first question is:  does compensating for too much gain by simply adjusting the volume knob knob down degrade the sonic quality?

My second (2 part) question relates to this quote from one of the replies in that thread:

 A quick note to Pass Labs and they suggested a pair of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the amp’s inputs.

What exactly do balanced attenuators do to resolve this issue, and if placed between the preamp and the amp, would they degrade the signal path & therefore the sonic result out of the speakers?

I am a relatively new owner/operator of a SLP05 and it is in front of one of the earlier Cary V12s.  I did find those balanced attenuators on ebay for (I think I remember them being) $89 a pair, which I find totally doable.  I am lsitening in a (very) near field room right now, and it seem as if I do have a lot of gain.  Generally the big knob is on 9 o'clock plus or minus a little bit depending upon the source material I am listening to.  I am using the balanced ins and outs to & from my SLP05 and I have been given to understand that using RCAs would reduce the gain somewhat.  I do have some RCAs (I am presently using Kimber Silver Streak balanced interconnects) but my collection of spare RCAs is Kimber PBJ and Monsters. 

For $89 should I try putting a pair of those  of Rothwell 10db balanced attenuators into the balanced amp’s inputs?

 

immatthewj
testrun
254 posts
 

 @steakster - Thanks for the link.

 

 

khloebo
13 posts
 

Dang, typed a bunch of stuff and the site freaked out!  Not going to spend more time trying to deal with the picture upload (archaic), but basically I get ~2/16th of a rotation for XLR from 0 to 68 dB at 15', and a a bit more than 3/16th for RCA.

If I want to use volume on the Cary with XLR I set -46dB on the goldpoint pots (dump 99.5% of signal to ground - linear??) and it sits around 2pm, so 1/2 a rotation.  I need a scope to see what is really going on, gut says that can't be linear but only measurements can be trusted here.

 

 

 

jaybe
863 posts
 

@avanti1960 

Appreciate your input. I’m running Focal Sopras with 89db sensitivity, so fairly high. Which might have exacerbated the gain issue.

It’s actually your posts that go back a few years that got me looking into the Cary. You were very instrumental in my research. Also your many posts about your old Rogue and 12AU7 tubes. Followed your lead on a lot of that. I still have the RP-7 and will be keeping it as a back up. I love the looks of the Cary and it was not an easy decision to go in another direction. I might still be tempted to go for a used Cary to try out if the timing is right. For now I’ve thrown my lot in with the Spatial Audio Raven and hope to get in a post about it in the near future. The icing on the cake for that unit is a full function remote. Thanks.

avanti1960
1,744 posts
 

Update, trials and tribulation with the abundant gain on the Cary SLP-05.  

I just received some relatively high efficiency speakers (DeVore Fidelity) and they are much more sensitive to too much overall system gain. They simply sound over driven, edgy, uneven response that makes them sound bright and forward. 

I love the speakers and am working to keep them. 

System gain- 23db preamp + 29db amplitier = 52db.  

Added 10db rothwell attenuators between preamp and amp, reduced system gain to 42db.  Sounds excellent but the attenuators do affect the sound quality. I can use the RCA outs on the Cary (17db) but the sound is much better when using XLR outs (more dynamic, extended bass, bigger sound stage because it uses another set of 6SN7 tubes in the path),  

I purchased a tube preamp with 15db gain, sound is perfect (44 db total gain).  However even though it is an excellent tube preamp, it does not sound as good as the Cary.  The Cary preamp is pure magic with the right tubes and rectifier and worth keeping.  Therefore I am sending it to Cary to have the gain reduced, a service they perform which will reduce gain by 6db balanced and single ended- so 17 db for the XLRs, 11 db for the RCA outs.  

After all the workarounds we have done it is clear that the SLP-05 has too much gain for most amps- unless your amp has adjustable or lower than typical gain (Parasound, Bryston, Pass Labs XA25, FirstWatt amps.  

If Cary would just offer reduced gain as a buying option- or - just reduce the gain on the stock version it would be compatible with many more amplifiers and IMHO sell a lot more of them!  

avanti1960
1,744 posts
 

@xcool 

not sure if this is still relevant to you but when I had the Parasound a21+ and then the JC5 amps, I got the best sound by running both the Cary and the Parasound amps with trim levels at 50%.  

Reducing the gain on the Parasounds back panel to 50% and the Carys front panel controls to 50% gave me the best sound using balanced connections.  I know the manuals say to use 100% on the trim controls for best sound but that was not the case for me- try it if you can- 50 / 50.  

Also I am going to get the gain reduction mod from Cary because my amp does not have gain trim like the Parasound. 

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