Playback volume?

Javi A. posted:

I notice as some of you that all Naim amps have the same gain, so I will expect same or similar "volume dial" levels for everyone.

No, because even if same source is used, with same output for a given recording, speaker sensitivities vary considerably, as do room sizes, and room characteristics, and listening positions - and peoples sound level preferences also vary. 

But what is clear is that preamp gain tends to be too high, compressing the volume range used by most people often to the first quarter of the dial and only even halfway at maximum loudness. It seems to me that since the advent of digital sources - which nowadays often have an output level capable of directly driving power amps to their max - some preamp manufacturers still  haven't addressed the fact that actually no gain at all is required for the preamp on digital sources, instead attenuation with a volume control and possibly appropriate impedance matching/buffering, and possibly filtering to limit ultrasonics and to produce  the house sound.

I completely agree with you about about changes in volumes due to sensitivities, rooms sizes, lisening position,... with the word "similar" I mean that not exactly the same but "roughtly" similar. In fact no-one said that puts the dial up to 12 o'clock.

I have a small room and I seat close to the speakers so I will expect low "dial volumes" but I go up to the 40%... At the beginning I thought it is becouse the "only" 30W of the UQ2 but I realise that it is becouse the max preamp output of the UQ2 is only 0.777 mV.

Doing some maths...

- UQ2 at 40% of its volume give a max output of... 0.777 mV x 0.40 = 0.31 mV

- A regular preamp gives at 2.1 mV at 100%. To get an output of 0.31 mV on these preamps... 0.31 mV / 2.1 mV = 0.15 = 15%.

So if I use a regular pream I will rise the volume up to a 15%. This agrees with my old Rotel/BW setup and with my small listening room.