[WEEZ]

Hello AVA and AVA fans,

I was first going to pose this in a direct e-mail to info@ava.com- but thought I would post here in case others have a similar question- and maybe Frank or Larry can educate all of us....

I noticed in the first newsletter that the EC version pre-amps have a 'low-gain' switch. This got me thinking about which version of AVA pre-amp would work best for me (and maybe others). Here's my situation:

Currently I am using the pre-amp section of an older Proton integated amplifier to drive an amplifier with an input impedence of 24.2k; gain of 26db; and input sensitivity of approx. 1 volt. This, in turn, drives my speakers which are 87db sensitive and are nominaly 8-ohm with a min. of 6.5 ohms. (Actually- the average is said to be 9 ohms with a max. of 14)

My guess is, that the pre-amp section of my integrated has relatively low gain-but no specs are given. All I know is, that I can't get past 10:00 on the volume pot with my CD player as the source without blowing myself out of the room. I wonder if 20db of gain in the AVA pre-amps that I'm considering would affect low level listening in an adverse way...? Maybe the gain of my current  pre-amp section is higher than usual for an integrated?

I guess my question is,...should I be considering the EC version?- or, is the SL version available with less gain?

I'm not as interested in playing my music loud as I am playing it soft. My guess is, that I probably only need 6db of gain- maybe 12db from my new pre-amp.....

??????

WEEZ

[avahifi]

All our preamplfiers have 20 dB of gain in the line section and 40 dB of gain at 1 KHz in the phono section, more or less the industry standard.

The Low Gain switch on the EC preamps knocks the gain down about 6 dB making the preamp's volume control more useful on sensitive systems like yours.

Note that we can set the gain on an SL series preamp down too, by simply adding a couple of resistors at the back panel jacks on the inside.  If you would ever need to bring the gain back up to "normal" all you would have to do is take off the cover and clip out the resistors with a wire cutter.

The reduced gain function cannot be done to the T8 vacuum tube preamp.

Frank Van Alstine

[WEEZ]

Neat; thanks for the info, Frank.

Out of curiosity- are the AVA amplifiers less sensitive than mine? (i.e.- lower gain?)

WEEZ