@Crow, you need to remember also the Prelude has HOT output as all new Auzen cards do, the outputs are 5 Volts Max. Most other soundcards will run about 2v maximum. With this in mind you can actually damage some type of gear with incorrect levels. With the X-Meridian most guys just set both wave and master to 50% and used the speaker volume or receiver volume to control the overall system level. For headphones, you could set your Wave volume to 100% and use the master to adjust the level for your headphones. Does this help with what your asking?