Setting Gains?

The DIY version of setting gains allows you the flexiblilty and time of adjusting after listening.  Set the gains with all controls flat or off to start with.  Try to get used to listening to your music sources with these controls left as they are, and this may be hard to do for those of you who are accustomed to immediately boosting bass and treble and cutting the mids.  After some time you might, and usually will, find a compromise between what you thought was appropriate EQ settings and what really makes the music sound complete.  It is after these listening sessions that you go ahead and make minor tweaks in the processing and boost.

After you have established some EQ and are happy with the results, spend some time setting the gain again.  This time, instead of using the DMM use the other (and I think more accurate) method:  listening.  Test tones (again) and ear muffs are used for this, and you will have found sources of info on this method in your earlier searches.  You will be listening for the clipped sine signal.  This will qualify your system to be accurate and have the highest signal-to-noise ratio, and most importantly, rule out the possibility of amplifier clipping.  You can then verify the results if you like using the DMM method, but as I have noted in other threads, that method relies on published ratings that typically can't be quantified.