The psychological factor

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....

aewarren,

I think your right that every preamp has a sweet spot below which the sound is compromised.  I think I found it.

On my Parasound A21/P5 combo, I typically listen with the volume control at 9 position, at night even less.  If I go above 11, it starts to feel uncomfortably loud.  Maybe it's my getting older -- I don't like the screaming volume level at hard rock concerts either.  Or, maybe its the limits imposed by my speakers, Martin Logan 60 XT?  Maybe they are best a laid-back volume?  Or it could be my room acoustics, or some combination of the above.