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Had ordered a pair of 10dB in-line attenuators from Rothwell
my preamp is "vintage" and I figured I might be overloading the input with my CD player (plus Ihave too much gain)..
Well there's no need to listen for hours: in my system, they are a big disappointment.
I suspect a mismatch in impedance.
Sound with the attenuators is soft, flat, and lacking both in extreme low punch and extreme highs clarity and dynamics.
I don't know what it says about Rothwell - they sure got some good reviews, are well finished -I suspect this is very system-dépendant. I hope it is, because if it's not, then it means there are a lot of deaf audiophiles out there!
Follow Ups:
How much voltage is CD putting out? How much voltage after rothwell and preamp. How much voltage do your amps need???
If you do not build or know how to test these things you just have to experiment.
Maybe lose the pre amp and go passive. Slagle has a nice autoformer kit, on the cheap, and it is at the top of the food chain.
Enjoy the ride
Tom
I don't know what CDP you have and its output voltage and impedance. 3dB of attenuation would halve the output. 10dB is a lot and could well explain your results. If you have done this because you don't like that the volume control only gets turned up a little attenuate the output of the pre to power amp connection instead.
What pre is it? What CDP and what power amp? Are you actually overdriving the input of the preamp to distortion\clipping that you connect the CDP to? Which input is that? Modern CDP's and sources have a much heftier and most often SS low impedance output of two volts or more. Vintage tube sources were usually lower output and definitely a lot higher output impedance.
Again since it is so easy try the Rothwells between pre out and power amp in. Good luck.
ET
"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936
CD player is Revox B226 - 2v, 500 ohms
Preamp is Korn&Mcway SP100. Sounds fabulous, but loads of gain. Specs unknown (it's a rarity). No idea of the input impedance. From around 1980.
I actually don't need to put the Rothwell between pre and power. Attenuation is done at power amps inputs (bi-amped sytem).
I just figured I would try the Rothwell because my previous CD player, with digital volume control, sounded slightly better when feeding the same preamp at -10dB output.
But I don't hear distortion per se. Not that I'm aware of, at least.
Still even with some attenuation in front of the power amps, 9 o'clock is loud, and 10o'clock shakes the house - but it's with 104dB sensitive horn speakers.
Globally all sounds great, I just thought I would try them - but it's no big deal.
If you need 10dB of additional attenuation, why not solder in a simple voltage divider at the input inside the chassis and avoid extra connectors, mass, signal lengthen, etc. Use the best resistors possible. you only need 4 so don't worry about cost. You can Google to find online calculators.
Those are obviously, not a serious kit, as they say. I made and sold the Ultimate Attenuator which was also a male to female adapter like the Rothwell but had a switch with fixed resistors attached to it to change the gain at will. They were, and are still held in high esteem. However, I never used them. Not transparent enough for me. The male to female adapter is not made from super materials. The Rothwell one looks totally ordinary. Also the resistors need to be the most expensive nude Vishays or you lose information and the impedances of the two resistors have to match the source and load. To this day, I use a nude Vishay resistor inside my amp and have the attenuator switch right next to each channels resistor to shunt resistors to ground to attenuate. I hear practically no sound to the two resistors, used this way. If I had a preamp with two much gain, I would mount two nude Vishays inside the preamp on the desired input. Damping the nude Vishays with a little EARSD40AL helps a little too.
Hi KanedaK.
FYI
Check your " in & out impedance" with the "compatibility Rotwell" attenuators ....
http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/how_attenuators_work.html
https://www.hifi.nl/artikel/2813/Rothwell-Attenuators.html
One musical note: I made (DIY) some (1/2/3/4/5/ .... 10 dB) line attenuators ..... with "no" musical problems ...
It's all music, I like it
I had the exact same results.
Learned to live with the (too) high gain of my pre.
There are certainly worse things in audio life to live with.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Yep, same disappointing result from Goldpoints. Went back and lived with the high gain. The Goldpoints sucked the life out the music. As noted, probably a mismatch of some ilk.
A single resistor in series might be a better option.
Dave
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