I haven't recorded with my CA-11 > STC-9000 > R-09 rig in a while and used it last night at an outdoor show (my son took the Avantone CK-1 > Fostex FR-2LE rig to Bonnaroo) and I have forgotten what the "unity gain" was on the R-09. I thought it was 15 or 16 and I think I ran it at 16. I was about 30' from the stage, DFC/FOB. It was fairly loud, but to get decent levels without adjusting the input on the R-09, I had to switch the STC-9000 gain to +30. At +10 it just looked too low.
The recordings sound fine, but should I have switched the STC-9000 to +10 and just raised the input on the R-09 until I got levels I liked or just kept the R-09 at 16 (which might NOT even be unity gain) and boosted the set in Wavelab?
Still happy this little rig will get nice recordings when I need it.
MSTaper
I use the same setup, except I have the CA-9100 pre.
What I'm about to say doesn't speak directly to your post, but I still think it's worth adding.
After a few recordings of mine turned out to be recorded at a volume level that was much lower than what I wanted - lately, I've been recording everything in 24bit. I just recorded a show a few days ago. I had to boost in 19DBs to get it where I wanted it. Since it was recorded in 24bit, there was no hiss or other anomalies (that I could hear), even though I increased the volume as many DBs as I did.
I have a couple of 16GB SD cards - so space is never a problem. I'm going to continue recording in 24bit so that I can "recover" more easily when I don't record at the correct volume.