I've got my 990 defaulted to come up at -35 dB. This is sufficient for normal listening. I may run TV up to about -20. Blu Ray, HD, DVD, and CD seem to be about the same relative volume levels as the cable box output. All but the CD are digital into the 990.

I've had it as high as 0 dB once but I must be too old, as it was too loud. Besides, the bird gets upset when it's past about -5 dB and there's a loud bass passage.

My default is also -35dB, which works well for cable TV and is pretty good for CD's as well (unless I have the house to myself and can crank it up a bit). DVD's need to be turned up a bit.

Well Im able to get decent output with everything set at +8 on the trims. Im still not too happy I have to do that But Ill live with it. And yes I might just be a little on the crazy side with my listening levels. Lets just say you would NOT! want to be my neighbor. My updated sub is being powered by a pair of CREST AUDIO CA9s one on each coil. 144.3 db at 42Hz on an Audio Control RTA meter :p

Davin, very impressive set up! I am a parasound owner too, 1206-not quite the muscle of the 3500 though. When you are not listening to that beast, do you use it as a welder? Did you have to run a seperate circuit for the 3500? My trim settings very from 0 to -2(sub is a direct servo from rythmik audio set at -4) and my speakers are Infinity kappas from the 80's(efficiency of 87db). When I watch a movie, I usually have it at -10, or if I push it -5 to -2. Listening to dvd audio or sacd, -5 to 0, these give a db level of 105+/- 2db. Brian

It's unusual to see all channels in a home theater calibrate to the same trim setting. It may be a silly question, but have you done a manual calibration using an SPL meter? If so, I'm curious what the reference level is being calibrated to (what the internal test tones measure for each channel when volume is set to 0dB) with that +8dB trim setting.