The psychological factor

rvpiano, I have AHB2 and use it at the lowest gain settings (Pro-level) as recommended by Benchmark (with DAC3 HGC). The whole idea is to move as much gain as possible to preamp (quieter environment) from power amp (noisier environment), not to mention less (percentage wise) electrical noise pickup on ICs between the two.   As for psychological factor - I like my max power to be around 2 O'Clock to be sure it will cover even very quiet records.  3 O'Clock makes me feel uneasy.

If only there were some memorable way of showing just how irrelevant the numbers on the volume control are....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgx4k83zzc

I find 9 o’clock and 10 on my sugden class A is plenty loud driving my tannoys. This is for both cd and lp’s. To think it only has 30 watts into 8 ohms....I’d guess by the volume it is capable of putting out, it has a lot more, but most likely not. I Used to own a 100 watt rogue class D, and I still own a 90 watt marantz (now in storage),  and I miss neither.

I have an amp that outputs 500watts@8ohm 650@4ohms & 1,200 watts@1ohm also will do 65 amps for 500 milliseconds and If I set my ARC LS15 pre amp volume to the 10 o'clock position I can barely hear my wife scream!!

I run the amp(s) @ 10, since anything 'upstream' controls the ultimate volumn.  In that fashion, the 'noise floor' is obvious....

One does have to be careful as to what to turn on when and how, but that becomes a matter of routine....