Not ENOUGH GAIN

Why does it matter if the volume knob is set at 7? 7 is completely arbitrary.

Assuming your source has a fairly normal output voltage, your preamp should have plenty of gain to drive your amplifier to full power.

The real question is, at maximum volume, is your amp + preamp combination able to drive the speakers to the loudest you ever care to listen to?

If so, there is no problem.

> And to answer clio09 I have not tried it all the
> way to full open yet.

So ... you can turn it to 8, 9, 10, 11, etc and presumably play louder and you haven't? If you want it to play louder, turn it up. There's nothing special about 7. And there's nothing harmful about turning it to 8.

The Grounded Grid just has a different gain structure than you've been previously familiar. If you can play as loudly as you can possibly stand, then you're golden.

Personally, I'd love to have as much range of volume control as you seem to have. What you have now is fine grained control over your volume -- that's awesome.

I've had a Grounded Grid before, with 101 db efficient speakers. The volume knob was at about 9 o'clock. With 87 db efficient speakers, is 1 o'clock reasonable? Seems like it might be ...

> My amp(Decware Torii 3) and preamp
> (Artemis LA-1) both have a volume
> control. Do I want the pre up as much
> as possible and then phase in the amp?

I think the correct answer is: whichever way sounds better. But if I were in your situation I would try some different approaches:

1. Try it with no preamp at all. Source direct to the

2. Decware with volume control at full open.

3. Decware set to a level such that if the volume control of the preamp were full open that it would be the loudest level you would ever consider listening at. This would give you full range of control with the preamp, assuming you actually want to control volume from the preamp.