Can swap the caps back once the slagle arrives. No drama.
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I am Geoff, modded the Jolida to Try and get the best from the Goldpoint, lost the soundstage a bit so presumably that'll be the newness of the caps although there could be a trade-off from using bigger capacitors. Trialing Ali Tait's Slagle AVC which should be with me tomorrow. I'll drop the old caps back in and see how they do. Interesting stuff mate. I'm hoping for big things from it.
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It'll be a whole different ball game mate. Basic passives can have their uses, but after using an AVC or TVC, I don't think you'll be wanting to go back.
I had one extremely good TVC, a MingDa MC-9, which sounds stunning with the two Monarchy Audio power-amps and my buddy has just given me another, a Promitheus, for which I'm very grateful, as it suits the Quad 306 rather well (vastly underrated power-amp the 306, a little gem! :)).
Something may have to go though. That's six pre-amps here now! Trouble is, I like 'em all :D
A good passive attenuator shouldn't alter the sound signals passing through it at all and if it does, only the very tiniest amount. The Goldpoint you're playing with had significant alterations made to it I understand so anything could be going on. I don't know the spec of the power amps you use and the phono stage is a strange one with its valve output buffer - a Croft RIAA may have been a far better option possibly if you wouldn't consider the known £500 one you liked... Not sure that 'shunt' resistors are in the signal path in an attenuator, they just take gain away and alter the loads as seen by the source at the input and power amp at the output and used with 'wacky' sources and non-standard power amps, anything can happen and often does in my experience - I'm not trolling or having a go here!
Maybe you should strip everything back to basics with known stock items, for cheapness a Rega Fono (A-D) as it's CHEAP, hum free and gives a good small-scale performance with popular MM cartridges (the Schiit Mani hums if it isn't happy I'm told by a frustrated ex-owner who replaced it with the Fono A-D), one of the cheapo passives out there (one I know rather well ;) and there are a couple of others if you look around for a ton or so). Maybe even a used known good neutral power amp to keep in a cupboard as a reference (a Quad 306 makes an excellent standby amp, they hold their value incredibly well, are easy to service and a couple of years little use won't devalue it later on- it's perfect with a passive controller too and Quad recommended one at the time for owners of old worn-out 33's).
Sorry to go on. If you don't have a universally known good reference point, merely 'trusting your ears' can lead you so far down the garden path and up your backside in the process, you'll completely lose touch with what things should be. I've been there myself, looking back and am only trying to help...