Best way to set gain

Hi Rascerman,

Their are so many issues to consider for each individual room and environments , ideally the volume on your preamp for normal listening levels should be around 9am, so adjust your gains to accomplish this,

Accuphase states the preamp should be at 18db and your amp at full gain.

On my Accuphase C 3800 my gain is set at 18db and my Accuphase A 65 is set at -6 Db. At low volume levels I turn the compensator to 1 and sometime 2.

I doubt you will ever over drive the amp, my speaker are 88db/4 ohm and I have had the meter reading over 200 watts several times and no issues. Accuphase Class A amps our underrated MONSTER.

The Accuphase well take 600 hours to break in, its a slow painful journey but between 500 & 600 is when you start to say WOW. I used CasCade burn in about 250 of those hours and let it run 24/7 mostly and then started turning off the preamp a half dozen times to let the caps expand which helped. Accuphase recommends the pre at 18 db & amp at full gain so its up to you on which gains sounds good and the knob at which position to accomplish this. The AVAA is very good and its not a digital so having it at noon to hear more swing so to speak would make no difference.
Check out AA they have a whole section of Accuphase devotees where you can learn more about your Accuphase components.

Yes, I was meaning cycling of the caps expanding and contracting just trying to cut it short. I noticed when I did this with my C 3800 it improved a bit in timber. Congratulations on your all in one purchase I had to do one at a time.

Im using Crystal Cable Magnum Opus cables thru out, they are pure 6n silver and sound fabulous.

I do like the AQ stuff very much and use there AQ Diamond & Vodka Ethernet cables in my optical fiber ethernet set up. I prefer isolated ethernet over usb for the fuller midrange and clarity.

I do not use any conditioner and run my analog & digital equipment on their own isolated transformer, meaning analog & digital have there own separate isolated transformer 220v here in Vietnam ( Expat ) with 5 meter grounding rods for each with 10 g wire. Pretty quite damn quite while maintain great dynamics in the system.

I do the same during break in with the compositor just to help break it in if that actually matter but it made sense to me so I did it, couldn't have hurt it any thats for sure. Very useful and works great for low level listenings or when running your system thru the night to speed up break in without disturbing the family.

Your welcome , check out AudioAficnado web site to learn more there are ton of guys over there running full Ref Accuphase gear that really know their stuff.

I just re read your original post and do I understand correctly you have 2 A 70,s ? if so why not just buy the A200,s ?

Either way if one or the other is correct WOW should sound awesome.

I agree with your assessment, I have emailed the owner several times and received one response and that was it still alot of good info to be gained. Computer Audiophile is another one.