db indicators on recievers

[mrkiko]

Hi everyone,

i was wondering about one thing:
Why on the display of most recievers we have the db indicators going from -something to 0, instead of going from 0 to +something? I remember that at school we learned things like silent park = 20 db, office = 40, than the traffic louder, the train , the ariplane ... This old story donesn't seem to match the recievers indicators. Why?
Thanks by now for your answers!!!

[purplepeople]

The neg values reflect the preamp attenuation below maximum signal level into the amplifier.

Recall that the power amplifier circuit takes any input and adds gain. If you connect the source output directly to the power amp, the speakers will get the maximum gain available. Since that is often way too loud (and distorted) for most venues, a preamp is used to lower the signal level.

ensen.