amp volume

[dixiemax]

Although still new to this stuff I am picking up a lot of info from this site. Perhaps somebody might enlighten me on this point. Under normal listening conditions the amp volume is always displayed as a minus value on the LCD display. At about minus 10 the volume is really high and the walls seem to rattle (which I like). Is there an obvious reason to show minus value? It seems if I turned to positive value something would blow!
Just wondering, the amp is Yamaha RX 357 and speakers Gale.
Thanks

Dixie

 

[jackal]

Sound levels on AV amps are set against the so called 'reference level'. Reference level is an overall value level set by Dolby which they believe equates to cinema volume when a film is played at a level upon which sound engineers work on. Therefore when you are listening you are listening at reference level -10 decibels. However many argue that this reference level is an arbitrary figure for home cinema, given that many amps/receivers cannot reach '0' without massive distortion,clipping etc. It is simply too loud for many. Going into postive figures would do nothing for the sound and you are likely to break something!

 

[dixiemax]

Ok thanks for that....something else I've learnt!
Best regards,
Dixie