[Nightmare]

My trusty Sony DVP-S500D has finally given up the ghost after many years of service in my headphone rig. The great thing about it was its option to attenuate the analog output. The manual didn't say how much, but I'd guess no more than -6dB. This was important to me, as I'm a Grado fan, and my ears are very sensitive to volume. My headamp (Corda Cantate.2) has a -9.7dB gain factor, and even with the attenuated CD output, I had to listen with the volume pot all the way down when using Grados.

Does anyone know of current production CDPs (under $500) that can attenuate their line-out level? I'm also open to using RCA attenuators as long as they don't color the sound or add distortion. The ones from Harrison Labs look good. Anyone have experience with this type of attenuator?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mrarroyo]

Have you thought of contacting Dr. Meier and asking him if the internal attenuation can be brought further down? It may just be swapping two resistors (one per channel). If so it could open you other cd-players. Good luck.