TRL Marantz Sa-14

oldpet
I'm not an Engineer either, just another music lover.
Paul didn't seem concerned or surprised. I asked him if any other 2000 owners had volume issues..he said no. Like you said, it's the little things that drive us nuts. I have no way of testing the output v without the same test CD Paul uses and a decent voltage meter. I have a digital multi meter, but it's made to test much higher voltages. 2v may not even register... I'm also assuming it's DCV.
La45
I have a unusual listening room 21'W x 32L. Half of the ceiling (over the equipment is 21'), the other half is a 12' cathedral style.
With my other CDPs, Onkyo, Denon and Pioneer,I could set my volume to about 12:00(about 50%) and I'd be clipping during dynamic passages. Now I can peg my Preamp with no chance of clipping 20-30% less gain than the 12:00 setting with the other players.
I do not own a SPL meter, maybe I should! The idea that the sound is much improved and less fatiguing is a possiblity, but my amp just gets a signal from my preamp. Can it get fatigued too? Why is it not working as hard or putting out the same spls, unless it's recieving less voltage?(my other players are "hot")I'm at a loss or I'm just spinning my wheels and nothing is wrong.
You guys are great, my wife thinks that I think I have the Emperors new clothes....good/bad analogy.
My TRL Sony-2000 is at approx 120hrs. I am hearing much more detail. Breaths, thumbs lightly slapping guitar bodies and much more background noise on live recordings, sounds I wasn't hearing on all the CDs I've been listening too for years, not a bad thing...

Gandme-

That is a bigass room! Lots of cubic feet. Not sure I understand your description of clipping, but I am not an audio engineer either.
What I have been told is that the amp could care less where the volume control/pot is at. Your amp just exists-i.e. -you have a 100 watt per channel amp at 8 ohms and it produces 200 watts at 4 ohms, or 150 watts at 6 ohms,,etc.

Actually turning up the volume control does not call upon more power/watts from the amp. The real issue is (if I am not totally off track here) your speaker load/draw and this is a mixture of efficiency and ohm load variation across the sound spectrum of usually 30hz or so to 12,000hz or something. Different speakers are easier to drive and have less ohm variation than others.

I don't know how efficent your speakers are. Maybe your previous cd sources were hotter and it gave you more decibels with your amp/speaker setup.
Maybe the TRL Sony does have slightly less gain and the system (amp/speakers) will not produce the same volume in that room (which is fairly large by the way).

We also don't know how loud you believe is standard listening (75 db?. 85 db?).

If you can get your hands on a cheap Radio Shack spl meter, then you could A/B with your old cd player and compare.

The only thing that throws me is your description of clipping. Clipping was always explained to me as speaker sound breaking up due to not enough power to adequately drive them. In other words-people don't blow out speakers from too much power, but rather not enough.

Are the Audio Physic Virgo IIs hard to drive maybe? Remember that it is just not efficiency rating but ohm variation across the spectrum.

Sorry, for the long post. Hopefully it offered some other things to consider here.

Wow. Sounds like a nice listening room. I would imagine its filled with goodies, carpet, furniture, tables, etc. I really believe in sound energy. What I mean is the total amount of energy produced by the system minus the amount taken away or absorbed if you will by the room and goodies that are in it. If you want you can try an experiment. Remove at least 50% of the furniture from the room if you can and listen at the same settings. I bet an empty room with Cathedral ceilings will produce more SPL to the ear.

I had to refinish my basement recently and I removed everything except the system and I could not believe the difference. Cheers to TRL and your "BIG ASS ROOM" -:)

The empty room may also create more unwanted reflections which you would want to treat. 8th Nerve sells a "Room Pack" of acoustic treatments that is cost-effective and has gotten good reviews. Given the size of your room, you may need more pieces. I believe they can give you a free consultation.

Well.....336 hours have passed. All I can say is, The TRL SA14 never speaks harshly, every sound that comes from it is enjoyable. It is detailed, transparent, dynamic, stage is wonderful, it is never tiring to listen to. Truly a pleasure. I just started to listen to an SACD (james taylor - Hourglass) and, SACD already sounds freakin' awesome! And I haven't burned in one hour on SACDs. I really couldn't be happier with this purchase. Just beautiful sound on every disc I play. Wow!