Alun - One easy (and not too expensive) thing you might try with your current preamp, to get a sense of what you want to look for in terms of gain, is (assuming you're using unbalanced connections) the Harrison Labs in-line attenuators. Parts Express (www.partsexpress.com) sells them in 3, 6, and 12 dB versions. In my experience, they're pretty transparent -actually better than the more expensive Rothwell attenuators. And once you have them, they come in handy for non-critical sources or secondary systems.
And in terms of overall system gain - it really doesn't matter whether it comes from preamp gain, power amp gain, or speaker sensitivity - the bottom line is, do you have good range of control on the volume adjustment, without problems of noise, etc.
Rich