[Lynxo]

Hi,

Does the integrated amp's volume pot level affect the overall sound quality if turned low, mid or max?

I was told to turn the int. amp volume pot to max but kinda nervous leaving it like that.

I adjust int. amp volume maybe 1/4 way and they turn up the preamp until it is loud enough.
Apartment living so cannot be loud anyway.

Thanks

[js1955]

What I say below assumes you are running an active live section into an integrated with passive line section.  If both sections are active, I don't think it's a good idea to run one into the other.

Others will correct me if I'm wrong, but ideally you want to be running your active line section's volume pot at about 12 noon / 1 o'clock.

Also ideally, in this situation, you want to be running your passive integrated's pot about 3/4 open.

If doing these 2 things gives too much volume,  I would adjust passive pot to maybe half or so, and then adjust active pot to give desired volume.  This gets the active pot into a higher, more desired range.

In general, just use your ears to get the best sounding balance between the 2 pots.  That's what I do.  No hard and fast rules.

[mick wolfe]

In a case where my power amps have passive volume controls, I turn them all the way up and adjust volume with my pre-amp. In your case things are different as you have two active pre-amp sections in play. I definitely would NOT turn the either "all the way up".  This is also a case, ( unless I'm not understanding) where  I would put pre-amp first in the chain and the int. amp following. In a perfect world, it would be most ideal if the int. amp's power amp could be isolated from its pre-amp section thus using it as a basic amplifier only. Some integrateds have such a feature, but they're probably in the minority.  Hopefully someone here with greater tech knowledge can step up and expand on your setup 

[Lynxo]

Thank you for bringing that up, passive vs. active. Both are passive poteniometers. So I will follow what you said, turn the amp passive volume to max and
adjust via the preamp’s passive pot.

[mick wolfe]

OK, glad you made that clear. Just to revisit, in my case the passive vol. pot on the amp is turned all the way up. The input signal comes from an active pre-amp. Depending on the pre-amp being used, your volume setting (normal listening levels) could be around 9 o'clock with a hi-gain pre-amp vs 12 o'clock and beyond with a low gain or passive pre-amp. That's been my experience anyway.

[augjer@gmail.com]

Lynxo -  I have a similar but different situation. My Dac has a volume control (pure gain on the dac chips as I recall) that leads to an active tube preamplifier, then to the main amp.

I’ve found if I adjust each knob a bit (dac 90%, preamp up from zero to listening level) I can achieve a tonality I like. If I put the dac at full steam it gets a little hotter. My understanding is that these gain gates in effect will allow you to highlight the aspects of each component more - in this case I like a little more of my tube preamp in my chain (or at least that’s what I’ve perceived).

So if your integrated has a pre section and your preamp is active, try playing around and see if you notice difference in tone but be careful not to leave one all the way up and crank the other one for instance!  Especially if you turn off the system and forget what you were doing

[js1955]

Simple really....like I said earlier......simply play around with it, adjust vol puts to various combinations,  and just settle on the one that
sounds best.  TO YOUR EARS!!     

Nothing to agonize over.

[mick wolfe]

Agreed, that's probably the safest solution considering the amp in question is an integrated. ( I think  ) In my case, I'm turning up the passive vol. pot on a basic amplifier. With an integrated I wouldn't be so confident as there might be an amplification stage in the mix.

[Bill Baker]

I would recommend turning the integrated volume control all the way up. This should help maintain the input impedance of the amp as all a volume control is is a voltage divider. Wide open allows the preamp to feed a more reasonable impedance. You can experiment with the controls to see provides you with the most open sound. You won’t hurt anything regardless of how you choose to run them.
I do it all the time when testing our SET amp that have volume controls but are normally run with a preamp. The amps volume control is wide open.