Which Elite Model do you have this problem with?
I seem to be having the same issue as you. I tried the other day,
cd player to a 10k pot to the xpa-5. packs plenty of power at low volume.
through the elite sc-05 and the xpa-5, it seems you lose a lot of gain.
I bumped up the channel level to +3dB which helped.
so is it really capable of 1.5V and at what setting?