Goldpoint SA4M-47 passive 'preamp' winging its way to Marco Towers...

[r100]

you mean his wife could have seen it ?

[r100]

Just having a bit of fun swapping avatars about!

Who knows? I might keep a naughty one.

avatar7147_163.gif

Thats got to be the "Boss Mode" avatar

[walpurgis]

Probably be this one soon.

[Marco]

Lol - you've gone boring again!

Anyway, as the Goldpoint is starting to settle in now, and I'm loving how it's sounding, I've decided to carry out one of their approved mods, detailed in this section of their website, under the title of: "It does not get loud enough soon enough" (scroll down past the other section outlining the opposite effect, and go down to the bottom):

http://www.goldpt.com/mods.html

It involves simply fixing a resistor of the same value as the stepped attenuators (50K), at the point shown in the diagram. I'm doing this because, although the sound is excellent, nothing much happens, volume-wise, up until around 9 o'clock on the dials, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the available steps beforehand.

Therefore, as it says on the website, I want to "reduce the number of silent, unusable knob positions", in my case, before the 9 o' clock position, and bring it more in line with how the DACT stepped attenuator on the Croft operates in that respect.

So I'm popping along to Dunc's (Tubehunter) later to get that done. I'll report later on what effect it has, as others contemplating purchasing a Goldpoint may encounter a similar issue, unless their source components have exceptionally high gain.

Marco.

[Macca]

I don't understand why you would want to do this. You are adding an extra and unnecessary resistor into the signal path. So what if you will never use the first few steps on the dial?

[Marco]

It's just a little annoying that the initial few knob positions don't really do much. Also, that's not meant to happen, and is likely because my older Sony DAC has a lower output voltage than modern DACs/CDPs do, which the Goldpoint has probably been designed to be used with.

That is why they mention the mod, in order to offer some flexibility. It's only one resistor, and if it's of good quality (which it will be), I can't see there being an issue. However, I will of course be comparing the 'before and after' effect, so if there is any audible degradation in sound quality, after fitting the resistor, then it'll be removed and I'll leave things as they were.

No harm in trying it, though!

Marco.

[Dauntless]

Lol - you've gone boring again!

Anyway, as the Goldpoint is starting to settle in now, and I'm loving how it's sounding, I've decided to carry out one of their approved mods, detailed in this section of their website, under the title of: "It does not get loud enough soon enough" (scroll down past the other section outlining the opposite effect, and go down to the bottom):

http://www.goldpt.com/mods.html

It involves simply fixing a resistor of the same value as the stepped attenuators (50K), at the point shown in the diagram. I'm doing this because, although the sound is excellent, nothing much happens, volume-wise, up until around 9 o'clock on the dials, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the available steps beforehand.

Therefore, as it says on the website, I want to "reduce the number of silent, unusable knob positions", in my case, before the 9 o' clock position, and bring it more in line with how the DACT stepped attenuator on the Croft operates in that respect.

So I'm popping along to Dunc's (Tubehunter) later to get that done. I'll report later on what effect it has, as others contemplating purchasing a Goldpoint may encounter a similar issue, unless their source components have exceptionally high gain.

Marco.

My Goldpoint is the same but by the 12 o'clock position produces a healthy volume in my room. As I leave the volume control where it finishes at the end of listening it's not a problem for me.

[Marco]

Hi Michael,

Yup, no worries. I didn't go for the added resistor mod in the end, but something else that is *much* better and that has not only cured the issue I had [with low volume output in the early control positions of the stepped attenuators] but improved the sound no end at the same time, by leaving only ONE resistor in the signal path (instead of 47), but still giving me the adjustment of 47 steps!

It now sounds INCREDIBLE...

Can't discuss it here, but if anyone wants to know the details of the mod, pop me a PM

Marco.

[struth]

Hi Michael,

Yup, no worries. I didn't go for the added resistor mod in the end, but something else that is *much* better and that has not only cured the issue I had [with low volume output in the early control positions of the stepped attenuators] but improved the sound no end at the same time, by leaving only ONE resistor in the signal path (instead of 47), but still giving me the adjustment of 47 steps!

It now sounds INCREDIBLE...

Can't discuss it here, but if anyone wants to know the details of the mod, pop me a PM

Marco.

so its not heading to charity towers then

[Marco]

Lol - no chance, with the way its sounding now!

Might have a Croft preamp up for grabs, though...

Marco.