Luxman L-100U volume control

I would like to hear from present or former owners of the Luxman L-100U Integrated Amplifier. The control has been disassemble and cleaned. Was scratchy before, not now. My question is when using it one sets the main volume control then fine tunes with the Attenuate control?

I only ask because when setting the Attenuate at 12 noon and then using the Volume control the steps up or down go in noticeable stages. Normal??



Barney

This volume control is set to provide 2dB changes through the main section of the control.

At the low end:
off
-50dB
-42dB
-37dB
-34dB
2dB per step the rest of the way up.

The use of the attenuator is to allow setting the volume control in a convenient position, 10:00 to 1:00 say when listening. It has a 16 db attenuation.

This allows use of the main volume control late at night when you don't want loud at the first or second click on the main control.

Thanks just takes some getting use to. The tone controls seemed complected at first but once I figured it out messing around got them set.

Does sound very nice on a pair of Dynaco's right now.



Barney

Blue Shadow said:

This volume control is set to provide 2dB changes through the main section of the control.

At the low end:
off
-50dB
-42dB
-37dB
-34dB
2dB per step the rest of the way up.

The use of the attenuator is to allow setting the volume control in a convenient position, 10:00 to 1:00 say when listening. It has a 16 db attenuation.

This allows use of the main volume control late at night when you don't want loud at the first or second click on the main control.

Click to expand...

I often wondered what the best setting for the attenuators on my M-2000 would be. I currently have them set at 15 out of a possible 20 and I rarely have to turn the pre (R-115) beyond 10:00.

@BlueShadow

I realize you are much more knowledgeable about Lux gear then I, what would you say would be a happy medium with regards to my attenuators?

Sorry if this is hijacking the thread

All attenuators in a system should be set to allow a good healthy turn of the first (usually preamp) volume control to the 10:00 level for regular listening and a 1:00 to 2:00 maximum for the loud parts.

This is done to move the minimum volumes up to a level where you have some control...notice the Luxman numbers above has BIG volume jumps for the first 5 steps and to allow the preamp to provide full volume in the system before the preamp is fully wound up (and noisy).

So whatever works for you is fine. For the amp controls, I would set them such that the highest volume you would ever want (quiet record or cd) would be achieved with the preamp at 3:00 or so. That would provide additional gain if necessary but might protect the system if someone were to spin the volume knob too far.

The position of the volume controls on gear has absolutely nothing to do with how much power a unit has...I read all the time that folks love the fact that one unit hits high volume at 9:00 and they prefer that to one that hits those high volumes at 1:00. Totally Wrong in my book. No fine volume control if 9:00 is as high as one can turn the volume control and 1:00 is not to the point of asking the unit to amplify the noise levels.

So set the amp levels where they are convenient to you and if that means you need to raise them when the house is empty, fine, that is what that are there for.

I use a preamp set an 12:00 and then the CDP feed with a volume control on the remote allows me to go from answer the telephone soft to as loud as I would listen. Very convenient...the reason controls are there...convenience.

The preceding has nothing to do with dialing in the input impedance, output impedance and such which can be done with these controls. That discussion is way beyond the scope of this response.

Thanks for the tutorial much appreciated!!