Preamp gain ???

This will depend a lot on the your speakers. How efficient are they?

Depending on the speakers, high gain might mean that you are only able to use a small fraction of the range of your volume control (which would be the case if your speakers are very efficient). On the other hand, low gain might mean you are not able to get your system to play as loud as you want (if your speakers are not very efficient).

I have the Dali Grand 90db/2.83v but I live in an apartment which I tought I would be into a house by now but the economy took a dive shortly after I bought it. I am guessing 24 would be ok maybe but may sound harsh. I am looking at Audio Research pre's.

this is the second preamplifier gain thread that has popped up in recent days...

it seems to me that preamplifier gain is generally irrelevant: what i would think should matter to you is what is the input sensitivity of the preamplifier, what is the maximum output level from the the preamplifier and what the clipping voltage is for your power amplifier. if your sources provide signal levels (typically around 500mv) to the preamplifier that hit the input sensitivity level then you can hit the maximum output level at the output of the preamplifier. in all likelihood, that maximum output level from the preamplifier is more than enough to drive your power amplifier into clipping (which i think might typically occur at around 4v or 5v).

the other topic that i have frequently seen commented concerns impedance matching between the preamplifier and power amplifier. as a practical matter, i don't know how much that really is an issue. the preamplifier specifications should tell you what input impedance it needs to see to drive maximum voltage and that should be way below the input impedance of most power amplifiers. for example, i have a bryston bp-20 preamplifier - according to the specifications, it can drive a maximum voltage (15v) into impedance loads as low as 600 ohms. my power amplifier (a bryston 4b-st) has an input impedance of around 50kohm, so you can see that impedance matching isn't really an issue in my case.

in any event, you can check the specifications on this stuff to be sure in your case but hopefully you have a better idea of what kinds of data to check.

there is the whole area of passive preamplifiers but i don't know anything about that kind of equipment so there may be a different set of considerations for which to account.

For many people the issue is too much gain, resulting in operating the pre w near max attenuation and at the lower end of the volume control's range. Under these conditions you may be in that portion of the attenuator where channel matching is not v. good and, particularly in the case of a stepped attenuator, where the "steps" are too coarse to give you good level control. Step x, too soft, step x+1 too loud. typically, the perceived volume difference between steps is less as you go to less and less attenuation (higher spls). Not knowing much at all about the technical side of electronics/circuits, I am guessing that this is due to the logarithmic relationship between power output and spls- Need 10x the power (wattage) to sound 2x as loud. So it really does NOT matter much as long as you are able to operate in the middle of the controls range. Believe me, I had a CAT SL-1 w stepped attenuator and 2 clicks up from 0 was too soft and 3 clicks up was "kick out the jams"! A real PITA.