I need a way to lower the front three channels a few dbs so they will match the surrounds. On this Marantz there's no level control for the 5.1 direct inputs. Also my blu ray player has no adjustments also.

Is there a low priced attenuater or small pot I could hook up the the hot wire of each front speaker cable?

I got a bag of CTS pots for les pauls or stats maybe these might work, again I figure all I need is the lower the juice on the hot wire connections. Are there any problems?

Never put speakers on pot. Drugs are bad.

No seriously I doubt you could find a pot that could take the heat of attenuating a front speaker. It would seem like a clever idea but it's inefficient and you may see smoke if it can't take the current.

5.1 RCA inputs on the back of your AVR never have any sort of preamp controls like speaker level adjustments or anything of the sort because they're not supposed to. They are inputs that go straight to the volume knob of your AVR. Therefore the device you're hooking up like you BD player must do all the pre-amplification such as speaker levels, distance and crossing over. If your BD player has a 6 channel RCA output on the back of it, it does indeed have at the very least speaker level control. Distance and crossover are another story. If your BD player has a 6 channel RCA output and does not have speaker level control, there is something wrong.

The BD is a Samsung BD5000 that just has large or small settings. Oh it will play a pink sound around the room but no settings control, manual says use your amp. :)

My friend just yelled at me and said I couldn't hear a 3db difference and not even worry about it.

You probably can hear a 3dB difference, but you might not mind. :shrug:
The biggie will be the lack of time-alignment.
Discrete sounds will still come from various places in the room, but it's unlikely that you'll get that nice enveloping ambience.

I'd just run SPDIF until I upgraded to a HDMI receiver. The loss of HD audio will be greatly overshadowed by the gains of having a proper setup.

Find a used Sony TA-P9000ES preamp.

This reply might be a little late... sorry I just found this post.

How long have you owned this receiver? The SR-18 can be set up to lower the output levels of some of the channels. Do you have the remote? You can use it, or better yet, hook up the composite MON out of the receiver to a TV and do it with the onscreen menu. Depending on the year your SR-18 was made, you can go to Calibration or Speaker Levels. Next to the Small/Large speaker selection for Front, Rear and Sub, you will find the level adjustment. You can use either Manual or Auto mode. Turn on the test tone (you may need to lower the volume) as you adjust the level of the speakers. In my case, I have to lower the Center channel a bit and the Front channels a lot because they are a very sensitive pair of Klipsch Chorus.

The SR-18EX manual is downloadable for free from the Marantz site. It's not exactly the same receiver but it has the instructions you need.

Hey thanks but I'm talking about the 5.1 analog hookup to the SR18. There's no control when you hook up this way, it says in the manual the device will have to have the control.
Anyway I switched the SR18 to my second surround system in this room. Using the HK7200 which has tons of bass mgmt for the front projector system. I think I liked the SR18 better than the HK7200 though.