Very interesting @donquichotte
at my normal listening level the power needles peak at about -18 or -20dB. The volume knob is at 8:40 (if it were a clock)
Looks like you hardly have any room for moving up that knob. But maybe because the E470 is a integrated amplifier, it is alright. Last night I was playing a SACD and my volume was at almost 12 o'clock position. This SACD I would deem as a "medium" SACD. But SACDs that are quieter (lots of DR), then my volume knob is at 1 or 1:30 position. It was actually a Mapleshade CD - "Mojo" Big Joe Maher, which has this nice DR, and for this CD, the volume knob was at almost 2 o'clock position.
Honestly I was surprised that even with the gain set to -12 dB on the power amp, the Accuphase is not running out of steam and can drive the speakers with only a few watts. Not that I am complaining - just that I am surprised, because I had really planned of getting a Class D (GaN) amplifier with at least 300 Watts power to experience the "headroom".
