How to match preamp gain to amp sensitivity?

Thanks Racarlson, I see what you are saying. My amp (ARCD250mkII) actually has attenuators on the back of the amp. I've tried them out using my phono stage and CD direct and they work out pretty good but not enough fine tuning.
My reason for asking is that I'm looking for a preamp and on another post have had some good suggestions but I heard once that I could overload the input stage of my amp if I use a pre with too much gain.

When running direct into the amp it produced excellent sounds. Now I'm thinking that passive is the way to go. I could NOT open the attenuators wide open so I think my input sens. is very low therefore it could be a good match for passive.

Any suggestions on this?

Hi, Alun -- I've used a couple of passives, McCormack TLC-1 (still in my office system) and EVS Ultimate Attenuators. Like many folks, I thought there was a tradeoff - excellent transparency and smoothness, some loss of perceived dynamics, especially in the bass. I also prefer to run long interconnects to my amp, which does not work very well with passives (I'd say not more than a meter or at most two). Audio Research amps generally have very high input impedance, which will help with some of the issues. I see the Placette passives on Audiogon for attractive prices, so you might give one of them a try.
Rich

Thanks again Rich, this could be a possible avenue for me.
I am thinking however that any pre that I use in my system may be only as good as the attenuators found at the back of my amp, and if these are NOT of the best quality, anything going to them may be just a waste.
I may look at them better and see if they can be bypassed or update with something like the EVS.

If all you want to do is match the preamp gain to the amp sensitivity you don't need a continuous control like a pot (may affect audio quality) or a stepped attenuator (expensive). All you need is a couple of resistors (dividing network). Use some cheap resistors from Radio Shack to determine the values you need, and then substitute exotic resistors, of the same values, if you think it matters.

Don't worry about "overloading" the power amp input. Your use of the preamp volume control prevents that. The disadvantage of too-high preamp gain is that the volume control will be very low down in its range. Working near the top of its range is good both with regard to audio quality and user convenience.

That makes perfect sense Eldartford. I am using an Ayre K-5x that belongs to a friend which I soon have to replace as he wants it back. It's a very nice sounding unit with about 4db of single ended gain which works pretty good with my ARC amp. I wouldn't mind a touch more gain though as the Ayre is usually operating pretty high on the scale, but as you mentioned this is probably for the better.
That said would a gain on 10 or 12db be a LOT louder with less finess in the volume setting or would say 20db be a LOT louder. I'm not exactly sure how preamp gain affects the loudness of the final product coming from the speakers. I do know that a change of 6db in speaker sensitivity is like doubling amplifier power (so to speak) but I can't be sure if it's the same for preamps and amps.
Thanks