Gain vs Volume....a question?

In simple terms, gain is a ratio and volume is what you hear. For example, say that "gain =10". Take two sounds - a gunshot and a whisper. If you multiply each by 10, the whisper will have a higher volume and be easier to hear whereas the gunshot will have enough volume to seriously damage your ears. Both sounds are increased by the same proportion or gain. But a gain of 10 will not take a whisper to that of a gunshot - you will need a series of gain stages in between.

Front end audio equipment is a series of gain stages. The cartidge has a gain setting, but not enough to drive an amplifer, and in most cases not even a preamplifier. So the chain is cartridge, phono preamp, preamp, and amplifer.

The volume control adjusts the gain within the preamp from zero gain to the maximum gain of the preamp. The strength of the source signal will ultimately determine the audible volume for a given volume (gain) setting.

Just to add a couple more simplistic thoughts to the already excellent discussion from an absolute layman’s perspective, "volume control" generally can be achieved by two basic means, either attenuating (that is reducing) the signal that comes into the control or by amplifying it (which I have understood as adding gain). An active preamp is called that because the volume control can do both of these things--it can both reduce the signal from the input level towards zero and it can (because it has an amplification stage) amplify the signal above the input level. A "passive" preamp, on the other hand, is passive because it can only reduce the input level -- it will not have an amplification stage at all.

For most sources, the output level of the signal (which is the input at the preamp) is relatively high. Which is to say that at zero gain at the preamp (no attenuation or amplification of the signal) the volume level will be relatively loud. (Which is how passive preamps/volume controls can work -- based on the assumption that the volume associated with zero gain will be louder than you ever want or need, therefore attenuation or reduction of the signal level can provide all of the volume control range you would ever want).

Compared to just about every other source out there, however, the output signal that comes off of a vibrating pin scratching across a rotating platter of vinyl is tiny. So tiny that, without additional amplification, the signal would be too weak for a volume control designed to provide a useful range for things such as CD players to do much anything useful with at all. Thus, in order to jack the tiny output from a typical phono cartridge up into the range the your average preamp volume control was designed to operate in, you need some additional amplification. This is why a phono preamp is a separate or additional piece of equipment (or stage in your existing preamp) from your plain vanilla preamp -- it independently amplifies the signal coming from the cartridge up into a range useful for your average volume control. The gain level of the cartridge dictates how much more work the phono stage will have to do to get the signal up into this useful range. Did my layman’s understanding screw that all up horribly?

Wow, what a great set of responses. Very informative. Good question Rwd!

Thanks all for your help and education!!!!