Hi John,
That -15 looks about right to me, at least when I compare it to what I'm getting using the clean settings on a vox tonelabs unit. I can get louder, but by clean settings, I'm referring to manual mode, all effects off, and a small amp sim dialed in to a --as hot as I can go and still stay clean-- setting. lol

As always, the thing to look at here, as rockstar_not mentioned, is signal to noise, but also we need to keep a few other things firmly in mind. 1. In the digital domain, we can amp the heck out of our signal without adding anything to it other than volume. 2. Even if we do have some noise, we can throw on a gate and be rid of it. I'm sure you know those things already, I'm just trying to keep you from throwing your StealthPlug away. : :

A system that I've went to, and you might want to try, is using lower levels for all my trks before mixing. In actual practice this works out to be a bit of a time saver in biab. Be they midi or real, if a track is working in biab at a volume setting of say 80, why should I take it to 127 before render, just to take it back down in my daw?? I can still take it up or down if I need to. When I record, I use the sw-return setting on my sound card for the backing trks that are playing in my daw, so that I can hear my guitar above them, record my low level signal, toss on a gate for the noise, and proceed from there. (my tonelab is noisy, but I still rather go thru it than straight in-- I really like it) Even if I'm using a hotter signal from the tonelabs, I turn it down until my hottest peak is -6 or below, which puts my rms way back down.

This seems to work well for me, but I'm a non pro, just having some fun, and my mixes seldom see the light of day anyway. ymmv as the saying goes. grin

btw, I just ran across this thread. Some interesting reading: http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showfl...ge=0#Post276946

Anyways, back to your original question. I doubt that your unit is defective. I think you've already solved why you're getting lower levels, keeping in mind that the manufacturer has to keep it between the lines for a variety of users.

Later,
Jim

I'd be completely happy if I had just one more guitar.