The iriver will remember the last setting where it was shut down at, so yeah, Safety Clip (why wouldn't you?) and for me gain of about 6 or 7. But I use the 9100 pre, maybe 15 with the battery box. It might be better to start a little low and ramp up versus too high and distorted. Do you have a remote? They really makes these easy recorders to use.
I like to set the meters to show only the last 15dB (-15 to 0dB), that way you are able to get finer resolution on the meters. Even if your stereo isn't super loud, you can still get benefit from the practice and checking pre-amp noise. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!