Best way to set gain

Hi Rascerman,

Their are so many issues to consider for each individual room and environments , ideally the volume on your preamp for normal listening levels should be around 9am, so adjust your gains to accomplish this,

Accuphase states the preamp should be at 18db and your amp at full gain.

On my Accuphase C 3800 my gain is set at 18db and my Accuphase A 65 is set at -6 Db. At low volume levels I turn the compensator to 1 and sometime 2.

I doubt you will ever over drive the amp, my speaker are 88db/4 ohm and I have had the meter reading over 200 watts several times and no issues. Accuphase Class A amps our underrated MONSTER.

Thank you for your response. I would have thought that setting the volume at noon or middle would be ideal. Being that my equipment is new and the type of volume control should I consider that the pre-amp's individual amps would take much longer to break-in if you will. Meaning should I perhaps run the volume control higher and gains even lower for the short term and dial it down as it breaks in. Would this not allow the circuits to be more fully utilized( AAVA). Which is to say yes to both units at the lowest gain and use more volume for break-in or am I missing something, just as long as I don't over drive it as a whole. For that matter should one crank it leave the room an listen next door at the neighbors to help get things cooking or is it better to gently break your equipment in. Your thoughts welcome.   

IMO, A preamp will always sound better when used at the upper range ( past 12 o'clock) on the volume control.