Hi Red Orc,
I'm delighted you've got your system sounding great. And those volume levels you are setting are quite normal. For my own system with either M80s or M22s running with an EP500, I find I set my H/K receiver's volume display to a range of -30 dB to -15 dB.
You will some CDs are recorded really "hot" (loud), often 10 dB louder than other discs (a 10 dB increase in volume subjectively sounds "twice as loud" to most listeners), and you may have to throttle back the volume to -30 dB (I'm thinking of a Ray Charles box set I have, and the levels are incredibly hot). Some other CDs have the recorded level set so low that I run the volume up to -12 dB just to get a comfortable playback level. If my CD changer is on random, and a hot CD is selected, I'm almost blasted out of the room.
I've also found that some Dolby Digital 5.1 movie soundtracks, whether from HD cable or from DVDs, are often much lower in level, and I have to crank up the playback level to -12 dB.
So you'll find significant variations in the AV receiver volume settings depending on the source, and that includes wide variations from one broadcast channel to another.
And it's true that I sometimes miss a day or two in scanning our forums when I get busy with other Axiom projects. Eventually--like today--I go through all the forums except for the water cooler.
Regards,
Alan
