Preamp output voltage...affect on volume???

The maximun gain is within 3dB, not enough to explain the difference.

The output impedance is essentially the same compared to the input impedance of the amp.

The input impedance of each compared to the output impedance of the CDP should make no difference.

That leaves us with the taper of the volume controls. The only logical explanation I can see is that the louder one's steps are bigger at lower volumes than the other one. Have you contacted the manufacturers to see what they have to say?

If you want to ship them both to me I can measure the gain at the different control settings. You could do this yourself with a test CD and a cheap multimeter if you really want to know.

ok, i think i figured out what BAT meant when they replied to me. My Classe has a gain range of -84db to 14db. The BAT has a range of 70db, from -53db to 17db. So on the lower end, the Classe is attenuating by more than -30db which explains why on the lowest volume settings, music sounds so much louder. This doenst help but at least I understand what is going on.

Thanks for the follow up. It helps in the sense that when it comes to gain you now know what you are looking for in a preamp. If you want to stick with the rest of your components you either need one with a lot of attenuation like the Classe or you will need extra attenuators.

50 vrms from a preamp? Absurd! The industry standard for a CD player (line level signal capable of driving most power amps to near max volume) is 2 vrms. Most preamps can put out about 10 vrms, which is overkill.