And if you check out the .PDF document for the new Empeg Mark 2 user's manual, they give the standard procedure for adjusting your amplifier gain in there. I think it's nifty that they included it. (Have you checked out that PDF file yet, Doug? It's in the support/downloads section of the new web site.)

Of course, the standard procedure is the opposite of your procedure. You concentrate on the noise floor, whereas CW says you should be concentrating on capping the maximum volume level.

In practice, it ends up being a little of both. There is no hard and fast rule which governs where your amp gain settings should be. And although you might start with either of those procedures, you end up doing a lot of trial-and-error work and striking a balance between your EQ settings, your noise floor, and your maximum desired gain. In the end, what's important to understand is that a line-level head unit (of any kind) is designed to give good clean output all the way up to 0db, so make your adjustments with that target in mind.

Oh, and Doug, one final note: Pressing "Pause" on the Empeg (at least on my Mark 1) is the equvalent of playing a 0-bit track. It does not mute the amps when paused.

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Tony Fabris