Input Level for analog signals on Proceed AVP?


Okay, okay, I know this belongs in the Home Theater section, but this is strictly a pre-amp question. I took the store unit home to demo and everything was fine. Just got my new one here out of the box and now when I play CDs it keeps putting up the "ADC clipping" warning and cutting out the signal. The manual says I need to adjust the Input Level and lower it until this warning goes away. So I started lowering the level....-9 dB later!--I finally find a level where the signal does not cut out! My question is--"What?" Why in the world would a pre-amp need this feature? And why did the store unit not do this? The only thing I can think of is I just upgraded my interconnects and speaker cable to BEL wire. The wire supposedly has some insanely low impedance value--but this should not have any effect, right? Yes, I have an email in to Madrigal, but I wanted to cover my bases and see if anyone else came across this situation.
argent
I own the Proceed AVP. I may be wrong on this because I only use the digital inputs but the input level has to be adjusted to not overload the analog to digital converters. These converters convert the signal to the digital domain for all of the surround modes with the exception of the analog two channel bypass mode. I don't think it matters how high the input is for this mode since its completely in the analog domain but the AVP may require you to adjust the input level anyway because you may switch to one of the surround modes that requires the signal to be converted to the digital domain. Some CD players and DACs like Theta DACs have very high output levels and can easily overload the analog inputs on a digital AV Processor. Madrigal may have a better explaination for why this is necessary but that is my understanding of the issue.
For any who are curious, the official Madrigal response was that a CD player like my Meridian 508.24, when coupled with extremely low impedance ICs can produce a rather high output signal. Lowering the input level on the pre-amp is apparently normal, and will not effect sound quality in any way. I will monitor this carefully as I break the unit in, and make sure I notice no sound degredation.
I have an AVP and only use the digital inputs. Why don't you try the digital connection and just use the Meridian as a transport? I think you are using the digital to analog circuits in your cd player, then the analog to digital on the AVP and then the digital to analog again on the AVP. You should be able to get much better sound skipping two sets of circuitry.