Help-New Tube amp TOO loud?!

Just bought a Yaqin 13S tube amp to pair with my Klipsch Chorus II speakers. The pairing sounds absolutely stunning. It's like hearing some of my favorite music for the first time. One "issue", it's ridiculously loud for my space!

If the volume is set at 7 o"clock in my smallish living room, what i would consider level 1 on a volume number scale, it is so loud you cannot remotely talk to each other in the room. This is with every source I'm feeding it (CD, Phono, Streaming device). To get it to a conversation level, you have to have the volume knob just shy of almost off, and then I can tell I'm not getting a full enough sound in both speakers. The sound is clean and sweet so it is not a matter of distortion but simply overall volume out of the speakers.

I know there are worse problems to have, but coming from feeding the same speakers with Yamaha Preamp and a Parasound 200wpc power amp where I always had plenty of play with the volume knob, I'm curious why such a difference. I can't imagine everyone with this amp only listens to it at blisteringly loud levels like this plus, it's only rated at 40wpc.

I know the speakers are rated at 8ohm but I may try the 4ohm taps to try and calm the loudness down a bit. I cannot imagine ever turning up the volume knob above 8 o'clock which just seems insane to me to have THAT little play with level. Is it because the Chorus II speakers are so highly efficient? I tried putting the Preamp inline and that helps immensely to control and play with the overall volume, but obviously changes the color and sound of the Tube output and isn't preferable.

Any ideas/thoughts are most appreciated.

 

Either get different speakers, or an amp with a lot less power.

jeff

 

Looks like your amp has an input sensitivity of 0.26V, which is pretty low, meaning it's very sensitive. By comparison the latest Parasound 200w power amp has a sensitivity of 1.0V.

In my experience, integrateds or power amps with less than 500mv input sensitivity paired with high efficiency speakers will give you a very limited volume range. I have a vintage Sansui that's only 35W but sensitivity of 180mv and I can rarely take the dial up to 9:00 on my Zu speakers.

 

If you don't want to switch speakers, one thing you could do is buy 12AX7 tubes which have less gain. For instance, you could get NOS RCA tubes that'd sound even better than the stock tubes and on top of that, you'd have less gain which might give you what you want.

A typical 5751 tube, which is a 12AX7 with better construction, will yield about 30% less gain. Please keep in mind it depends on the construction of your amp. If the circuitry relies heavily on the 12AX7s for gain, you'll notice a big difference. If it isn't as much, the difference will be minor.

Also keep in mind the RCA 5751 tubes aren't cheap. Here's an example ; 2 x CRC-5751(12ax7) RCA Tubes *Black Plates-O*Mil spec*Bogey Pair* | eBay

 

Depending on your source, you may want to consider a passive volume control or a buffer to drive a smaller power amp. That way you would have a lot less gain up front.

jeff

 

An AX7 tube with less gain is an AT7 or AU7...

 

Exact sources are:
Sony CDP-CX300 CD player
TC-750 Phono Preamp
Cheap Sony Blu-Ray player
SMSL Blutooth Device

The CD player is the loudest of all, but even the Phono Pre is very similar. All 4 sources give very little play with the overall loud volume of this amp. The streaming device has a Output volume control so that helps.

 

Or just order a pair of Rothwell attenuators - About 30 - 40 bucks
KB

 

The amp has two 12ax7 and two 12au7. So which ones control the gain?

 

Yes, passive attenuator is probably the easiest solution. Something inexpensive like this from Schiit should work:

Schiit Audio, Headphone amps and DACs made in USA.

Or perhaps a Lightspeed Attenuator.

 

Swapping to lower gain signal tubes may ameliorate the volume issue and it is certainly worth trying but I fear that system matching is at the core of your issue. Your Klipsch speakers are super-efficient (101 db), a low watt SET tube amp would have been a better match. If you really love/like the Yaqin amp then swapping to lower sensitivity speakers will solve the volume issue. Good luck!

Edit: I've just read@Ontheone post after I posted this and his suggestion for the Schiit volume control ($49) is a cost-effective solution that will work.

 

The 12AX7's are where all the gain is.

jeff

 

Rothwell attenuators.

in-line attenuators

 

Yaqin does not publish the input impedance of the amp. I'd be real careful about putting a Schiit Sys in front of it, as the output impedance will be a few thousand ohms when you significantly turn the volume down on it, and you could lose bass extension. I'd go with the Rothwell attenuators.

 

And the difference between a pot and a fixed value attenuator is.....?

CJ

 

This is about gain and has little to do with power. A 100 watt amp dies not necessarily have more gain than a 10 watt amp.

CJ

 

It's a rather poor design in that regard then. You will need to have the amp modified to reduce gain, or modified to have a different volume control installed if that is the culprit of the mis-match. Using your preamp in front of it is essentially the same as changing the volume control. It adds some other components, and thus noise though. Attenuators of other passive volume controls in front will also add to noise and or coloration as they are in series with it. I would try replacing the 12AX7 tubes with 12AU7 tubes if you think that you really want to keep the amp and not have the expense of having it modified. It seems like a downgrade in relation to your previous amps though. It would be overall better for sound to keep the original amps and replace the speakers IME.
-Bill

 

The quick and cheapest decent fix would be fixed value attenuators for the inputs. Putting another pot in the system is less desirable because it is quite difficult to make a decent pot and two cheap pots in the circuit will do more damage than fixed attenuators.

 

Thanks for all the answers all. If i lived alone and didn't have to play music at quieter levels, this wouldn't be an issue. I'm just shocked how sensitive the out of this is. I feel like i could fill an entire auditorium if I cranked it even to 12 o'clock!

I ordered a couple of attenuators to test! I'm also wondering if you think this would be a better choice? All said, it would be cheaper then 4 pairs of attenuators.

https://www.adorama.com/rolpp532.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsP-W6Kri5QIV04NaBR0gggKvEAQYBSABEgIRrfD_BwE

 

I have not heard the Bellari, but, given that the product involves the cost of another box, plus input selector, plus an attenuator, plus you will need another set of interconnects, I would expect quality to suffer. This is adding another pot, and one that is probably very cheap.

 

Point taken....less guts/parts is better. But i have also read that RCA attenuators may degrade/alter audio quality, so I suppose it is just the lesser of two evils. I'll first try the attenuators and see if i like what i hear.

 

See post #5

Actually, you could, and it would probably work quite well. I did some parties in large venues many years ago, and with speakers a lot less efficient than yours.

jeff

 

Why am I the only one that thinks something may be amiss in the amp. Maybe a component in the feedback loop or bias that is causing it to drive the power tube too hard at the bottom of the volume range. I would get back with the dealer and get it checked or connect it to a friend's rig to compare. I have a hard time accepting that that situation is right for what is a pretty common amp setup. Yes the Klipsch's are very efficient, but this seems out of whack. I can say my little Cayin EL34 produces about the same volume at, say 10 o'clock as most of my other amps. I've had amps that were pretty coarse on the volume control (the original CMI comes to mind) but never one that produced unreasonable volume at the bottom of the control.

Of course the OP may have pretty tough expectations of how low it should be in relation to "normal" speech!

 

Nothing amiss. Input sensitivity is high. The attenuators will fix him right up.

 

Yes, you're the only one.

jeff