[JakeJ]

Hi Jason,

Hope your week of travel is pleasure related but if not may the project go smoothly.

OK, your CJ preamp specs as having 22dB of gain.  That's pretty high, most linestages have 16 - 18 dB of gain.  Your Parasound power amp has ~28dB of gain (by calculation), a bit high but manageable.  I took a look at the manual and one question comes to mind, are you using XLR (balanced) interconnect cables?  If so you could try RCA cable which should lower gain 3 - 4 dB.  If you are using RCA cables already are they unshielded?  You might try a sheilded cable to see if that reduces the hiss.

Bottom line is I now believe you may have too much gain and changing tubes will not make much difference.  One alternative would be to use inline attenuators on the interconnects between the preamp and amp.  I own a set of the Rothwells which lower gain by 10 dB and are completely transparent.

Regarding the volume references of 10 to 35, how high will it go?  If it goes to 99 then you are not getting good use of the control.

Have a great week and look forward to hearing from you when you get back.

Best Regards,
Jake

[gerald porzio]

Inline attenuators will reduce the hiss to the point where it may not be bothersome & give you greater use of your vol. cont. Tube preamps will be noiseir than SS preamps. That's the nature of the beast that all too many overlook in their quest for MR "magic."

[jriggy]

Hey all,

 Back from our trip and just getting a chance to say thank you...

JakeJ, Thanks so much for looking into the numbers for me re: my gear! I had a feeling from the beginning that it was excessive gain as opposed to tube rush... Its just the way that hiss sounded to me... And yes, my vol read out goes to 99 (!!!)... So looks like I will be looking into a pair of Rothwell attenuators for the time being...

Anyone know a good place to get a pair of em???

Thanks to the OP for the thread and allowing me to share in the knowledge.

 Jason

[JakeJ]

Hi jriggy,

Hope you had a great time.

Your welcome!  Only too happy to help.  And on that note here you are:
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?accstwek&1270460322&/Rothwell-10-dB-attenuators--rc

This is the fellow I bought mine from. 

I found them to be very transparent, hopefully you will too.

Keep us posted.

Best Regards,
JakeJ

[jriggy]

Hey JakeJ,

 Got a pair of Rothwells today... So far so good!!! Vol goes up 10 clicks further on my CJ pv14ls2... It has brought more dynamics, detail and air in the highs and... of course, more control over vol level... Thanks again for the help.

Question: When engaging my other pre for 5.1... Which is better to even out the levels? Lower all the other channels or raise the level of the L & R (attenuated ch's)?

 Jason

[JakeJ]

Hi Jason,

That's good news!  Just glad I could help.

You are doing the HT bypass thing right?  That is something I have no experience with as my two channel and HT rigs are separate.  My suggestion is you pose this question in our HT & Video circle.  Member Bob in St. Louis is vastly more experienced in this arena as are the many members who have a similar setup.

Enjoy,
Jake