Aleph p 1.7

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Goodmorning everyone,
I have a small question to ask the community that surely knows more than me:
I made an Aleph 5 driven by an Aleph p 1.7, I have to adjust the "gain" always almost to the maximum, if I set it at low values the quality of the music is poor, I cannot say that there is a real distortion. ..... it is poor.
Depends on what ?
 
Hi, I couldn't make any measurements, I can say that the source is a Wadia 850 cd player where the signal voltage should be 4V.
Attached you will find the diagram of the pre amplifier with the "gain" control highlighted
 

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Which switches are open or closed? These all will affect the gain.
Seems like you may have the switches set for unity gain.

For the most gain (+15dB), short the series resistors (1.1 and 1.2),
and open circuit the shunt resistors (1.3 and 1.4).

Turn down the volume control to minimum before turning it back on,
to avoid blasting the speakers.
 
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Using XLR or RCA-style inputs? I seem to recall that if using RCA-style inputs you'll need to short pins 2 & 3 in the XLR jack or the gain will be off.

Unless I am mistaken, the "gain" adjustment in the schematic looks to be used to zero out the offset between + and - sides of the circuit. There may be more to it that others can comment on. But if you have it to either extreme, I don't think it is going to sound right. I suspect somewhere close to the middle is right.

Others, please correct if I am out of line.
 
While I haven’t started my Aleph P project yet, and I don’t know how that gain pot affects the circuit, I’d be tempted to try centering it and giving it another listen. The service manual doesn’t describe its function, so I’ll have to do some more searching to see how it should be set. But I suspect that it’s for adjusting the balance between the +/- inputs.
 
We don't have pics, he have no clue about your gain structure, no clue about your speakers..... so for me your description of symptoms does not make any sense, sorry!

FFS even if you paid someone either to build a clone for you or bought a clone for big $ I would be surprised if nowadays Nelson Pass cares....

No need to have secrets, it's not encouraging anyone to step in to help you...
 
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I think I understand some of the mystery now. Your question is not simple at all because you think that is gain adjustment. It's not gain adjustment. You said that you have to turn the gain all the way 'up' to the maximum or it sounds horrible. What you are doing is adjusting it so the + and - gain is matched and you are using a balanced signal as you mentioned.

What this means is your halves are not balanced and there is something wrong. You say it sounds wonderful and without pictures I suspect that you actually have the switches set wrong and need to compensate with the adjustment pot. The switches - depending on who designed the layout (not the circuit but your boards) should be a mirror image of each other, not identical to each other ... or depending on your boards, the switches should be identical to each other, not a mirror of each other.

This is the part that nobody knows except you so nobody can answer that one.

This is all just theory but see if it makes sense and if it's actually the case. If you can get it to sound good, it's probably not broken, just need some trial of settings on the switches and adjustment of the 'gain' pot but you'll need to measure it while you do that.
 
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