In reply to:
Some pre-amps still have the old 0 - 10 scale, but you won't find that on any modern receiver
And some Spinal Tap models go up to 11.
But seriously... the reading on your receiver is a relative power level, and the dB you're probably more used to (and confusing it with) is dB SPL, sound pressure level...
dB is a bit confusing, since it can refer to many things, usually a letter will be added to the end to give you an idea of what it refers to... ie :
dBm - referenced versus 1mW
dBFS - referenced vs digital full scale (say a square wave alternating between the values 0 and 65535 for a 16bit sample)
dBv - referenced vs 1V RMS (root mean square)
dBu - referenced vs .75(?)V on an unloaded circuit
dB SPL - dB sound pressure levels (logarithmic - where a 3dB increase is a doubling)
there's also a dBa, which has something to do with the psychoacoustic properties of the human ear as it relates to different frequencies... not often used.
As you can see, dB can refer to voltage, power, or sound pressure.
Bren R.
