Sensitivity Ratings on Preamplifiers or Integrateds vs. Amplifiers

@mesch
Your thinking is correct. The input sensitivity of that Line Magnetic is on the low side. Since you don’t have a volume adjustment on the DAC you can always add a schitt SYS if you want to use the volume control in the higher range on the Line Magnetic!
https://www.schiit.com/products/sys

@yogiboy  Thanks for your response. I do own a SYS. I am really not overly concerned with the volume position as I am wondering how much power I am reaching at the position. I don't feel I would accomplish much adding another potentiometer and pair of cables between DAC and amplifier.

 I am going to play with my SPL meter measuring at different levels. My Tannoy Sterlings have a sensitivity of 91dB and don't drop below 5 ohms impedance. If I take that at face value, knowing the distance between the SPL meter and the speaker I might be able to get a rough guess of what power I am using. I am not interested in pushing the amp to the point of distortion. 

I have had integrated amplifiers that exhaust the amplifier stage at 12 o'clock volume. It seems the preamps in these integrateds have gain to accommodate low phonostage outputs. Often too much gain for digital sources. These days 2V from a DAC is the minimum. So many preamps have far more gain than needed for digital sources. 

As an aside to this, My Aric Audio Tube preamp has variable gain, 0-20dB. I find this a useful feature. Of course not in use with the LM 211ai.  

Specifically for my Line Magnetic 211ai it is specified as 200mV and I assume this is for the preamp stage. This seems low and may be why, when driven by my DAC having 2V output, I need not turn the volume past 10 o’clock for sufficient loudness. I understand the volume position is no measure of the wattage one is asking the amplifier stage to deliver.

Usually this means 200mV in for the amp to give it’s full power just before clipping, which is a bit higher sensitivity than normal, 500mV to 1.5v is usually the norm. Seeing you have a preamp stage in the way I would say it’s 200mV (.2v) with the volume at full.
You need to see if the volume pot is Logarithmic (A) or Linear (b) one, should be marked on it, then if 10 o’clock seems about right for a linear with 91db speakers, as linear doesn’t "to the ear and measure" increase much past 12 o’clock, like logarithmic does

Cheers George