On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:48:47 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Clive Backham" wrote in message


But I do drive it from the main outputs
of a preamp in order to achieve decent record levels.

That would depend on how you define "decent". I think that leaving 10 dB of
headroom while digitizing analog sources is a good idea.

That's probably entirely sensible, but I've spent decades on both
analogue and digital systems aiming for record levels close to FS, and
habits like that can be hard to break. It just feels psychologically
better to be peaking around -3dB, even though I keep telling myself
that -10 would be just as good (when transferring LPs).

I typically set up for -3dB on what I think are the loudest sections,
and have yet to see an unexpected peak blow the headroom. But
recording LPs gives you the ability to set up levels at leisure. If
you're into live recording you don't have that luxury, and in that
case I totally agree that you need to run with additional headroom.
(But in that case, it's debatable if the AP2496 is the right card for
live recording).