[imahawki]

I'm running a Schiit Modi Multibit and Schitt Vali 2 powering a pair of Aeon closed headphones. With these headphones either gain setting really gives me a good range its just a matter of being around 12 o'clock give or take on low gain and more like 9 o'clock on high gain.

I have a thought after trying both which one sounds better but I want to hear if there is a rule of thumb.

 

[SilverEars]

I wouldn't say there is any rule. Sometimes if there is too much gain and the pot is channel imbalanced at low volumes, you'd want to lower the gain to be able to go past the range of channel imbalance with poorly made pots(sometimes gain maybe too much that your pot or volume knob doesn't have much range). Also, if you hear hiss at high gain and bothers you, go lower. Other than that, whatever give you the enough range to fine tune your volume knob and sounds best to you.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm running a Schiit Modi Multibit and Schitt Vali 2 powering a pair of Aeon closed headphones. With these headphones either gain setting really gives me a good range its just a matter of being around 12 o'clock give or take on low gain and more like 9 o'clock on high gain.

I have a thought after trying both which one sounds better but I want to hear if there is a rule of thumb.

If you can get to your preferred listening volume in the lowest setting then use that. Either way, if at your preferred listening level on the knob and you can hear noise between tracks (more serious listeners will hit pause and crank it up to max just to test the amp), you should probably get a new amp. If you can hear that noise between tracks then it's there while music is playing, getting in the way just without being too obvious.