A friend of mine was over the other night and I was playing with my receiver. He noticed my level settings and said they were too high. I had the mains at +6, the surrounds at +9, and the center and +7.

Now, he says putting the levels that high puts strain on the receiver, and they should be much lower. I don't understand what difference it makes, as long as you're not overdriving the receiver. What's the difference if the level is set at +7 and I listen to the receiver volume at -50, or if the level is set at +1 and I have to crank it to -30 to get about the same volume?

Seems to me it's all the same, but then again, I'm a moron so I thought I'd check with people who knew things.