The psychological factor

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.

I find the time of day is synergistic with the control position.
So 8.00pm when I'm wide awake I set it at 8.00.
By 11.00pm I'm getting dozy and find 11.00 best.
But if I really get into it and listen until 3.00am then I set at 3.00 - good and loud, so I don't fall asleep.
I'm thinking of getting a motorised control that automatically moves the control slowly to the right so I don't have to keep getting up from my chair.

People with remotes don't have this trouble  Their settings are like   24, 37, 54 or 116.
Perhaps squares will sound best - 25,   49,   81  or whatever.
If that's right then cubes and fourth powers must be better or settings that are powers of more than one root, 64 would be good.

Remote users, please let us know!