12 dB RCA Line Level Audio Attenuator Pair

Worked for my application. I am using an old DVD player (function as a CD) player as “aux in” to a vintage receiver. Before this product, volume would cut in too loud with the volume only slightly turned up. Turning up any further resulted it distorted bass. Using this perfectly solved my problem. No distorted bass and better resolution volume knob. Now I have an awesome “CD player” without having to thrift or buy one for my setup.

I've spent the better part of a year trying to find a solution for the notorious clipping afflicting my Cambridge AXR100 stereo receiver in my phono setup. For a bit of context, I have an AT33EV LOMC cart connected to a an Ortofon T-30 step-up transformer, connected to a Fosi Audio adjustable-gain phono preamp, connected to the Cambridge, and audio passing through a pair of Klipsch RP600M II's. Before I acquired the passive Klipsch speakers, I owned a pair of active Kanto YU4's which (with their built-in amp) never had a problem with clipping. The Cambridge and Klipsch pair worked perfectly fine for a time until I played a few records that produced very audibly loud pops (clips) at various stages of the playback. This never happened on those same records using the YU4's, so I knew the problem wasn't with the records themselves. After some troubleshooting, I decided that my step-up and preamp were simply delivering too much voltage to the Cambridge, which thus lead to clipping in the form of very harsh, loud and unpleasant pops. While I could certainly increase the input impedance of my SUT or reduce the gain of my phono stage, I often found it simply wasn't enough to prevent certain records from piercing that clipping threshold. Additionally, the SUT really works best when the input impedance matches (or closely matches) the internal impedance of my cart (which is roughly 10 ohms). Increasing the impedance above that mark often made for very veiled, muddy and unenthusiastic sound reproduction. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. A recommendation on a audiophile forum lead me to these 12db attenuators, and all I can say is WOW! I plugged them in to the Cambridge RCA inputs and attached the Fosi to the female end while keeping everything else the same, and the results were spectacular. Not only did they decrease the input voltage and eliminate any trace of clipping, they did so without diminishing the audio quality whatsoever. In fact, I actually think it sounds better than before, but I need to record some comparison samples before I can say that definitively. I honestly can't praise these enough. They were exactly the solution I was looking for and they've made my record-listening experience astronomically better as a result. I've seen some folks complain about the pricing, but I honestly think they far exceed their value. If I spend thirty dollars now in exchange for a lifetime of significantly better-sounding music, I'd say that's a pretty fair trade.

A quick review for a simple item... My PC and all my AV equipment is set up for Twitch streaming. Some time ago, the ADC on my mixer started creating audio dropouts, which I tried troubleshooting to no avail, so I ordered an outboard ADC to essentially replace the inbuilt one. This fixed the dropouts, but introduced its own problem--heavy distortion, as the new ADC was far more sensitive than expected, and just couldn't handle the higher output of my Alesis mixer. Enter the HL Attenuator pair. I placed them inline with the output of the Alesis, and my problem disappeared instantly. After something like 6 months of problem solving and poor audio on my streams, I'm FINALLY where I need to be, thanks to these little level-reducing gems. Hats off to Harrison Labs! (Added info: basic RCA/composite audio connections. They work the same in either direction relative to signal flow. Build quality is superior and surprisingly heavy, with a firm grip.)

The Schiit Modi amps put out like 2W peak, and the sensitivity of every one of the line-level amps I own is like 200mW. I don't know why they make things this way, but I digress -- this did a great job on my "main" setup with a Modi 5 and an NAD316BEE. I can actually use...50% of the potentiometer throw now instead of 3 clicks. Zero quality loss. This actually was not enough attenuation for my vintage amp (a Realistic STA-65D), so I had to get a passive "volume pot in a box" for that. Do note these are directional when you connect them. I learned this the silly way. They don't work bidrectionally. It's meant to go right on the receiving device so you keep the high voltage for the entire run and then step it down just before entering. It sticks out a lot in the back so if you don't have space behind, you might need a right angle RCA connector.

It works really well for lowering the decibels on your stereo. I recommend it.

I use these to connect the high line-level outputs of a professional-grade mixer into the lower level inputs on consumer-grade audio equipment. They keep the mixer from overloading the consumer audio gear. They work without compromising audio quality and do not add any noticable noise.

Working with quad 306 as expected

I have speakers that are so efficient that my receiver volume control gets quite loud enough after turning up the control (the pot) only a little bit. It's an old Onkyo and has a lot of power, and my speakers are Polks in a model that is very efficient. So, I always wanted to get this amplifier attenuated a bit to get the volume control in a better range. This receiver/amp makes using the Harrison attenuators easy. It has rca preamp outs right into main amp in on the back of it. So, I pulled the little pins making those connections, used two very short patch cords along with the two attenuators, and put the -12 db in between the preamp out and the amp in. It works perfectly. It gets my volume control that much more off the floor of it's range where it's not all that even between channels (like most of such pots that control volume). IF I had any need to turn the -12db on and off with my remote control, I could have put these on the good old Tape 2 monitor and created a loop where, when I selected that (along with whatever other input) it would loop the signal out the back and back in again, minus the 12db, and have it as a handy on and off for the attenuation. But, I don't need to turn the attenuation on and off. On all the time is great. So, works as advertized for me. If there is any degradation in sound, I surely cannot detect it and I'm pretty picky. These are excellent.