[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1331939518' post='1581355']
Optimum gain settings (your method) mean driving the rest of the circuits to the best of their design ability and in my opinion will always sound better than altering your whole gain structure simply because you want to alter the volume.
[/quote]
+1 Absolutely bang on.
Sometimes its worth backing off the inout gain a tad more than necessary and bringing up the power amp volume to compensate, some circuits do sound a tad sweeter like this IME when recording the amp but its marginal at best. The general rule of thumb for gain staging an amp is master down very low or off, set the input gain to the clip light (the exact detail of which varies between manufacturer, DO check the manual), then bring up the master up to required volume.
Everything is running with the best signal to noise ratio possible for a start, the power amp is being delivered an optimum signal and so you can reach the maximum amp volume, and any inbuilt compressor (ugh!) will be fed the right amount of gain and therefore do something (probably horrible, but I digress)...