Where to position fader control?

This question is a little "in the weeds", but bear with me.  A friend asked me this one, and I didn't have a good answer for him.

If I have a head unit with front and rear preamp outputs, and I only want to use the front outputs, should I position the fader in the center position, or move it full forward?  My instinct would be to leave it centered, and adjust the rest of the system gains appropriately.  After doing this, he would likely run into clipping if he ever moved the fader control forward, but let's assume he's not going to do that.

Along the same lines, let's say that a deck has front and rear preouts, and they're rated at 4 volts peak-to-peak.  Does moving the fader control forward increase the output to the front preouts, or just decrease the output to the rear?  If moving the fader control forward would cleanly increase the voltage on the front preouts, then it might be a good idea, from a signal-to-noise standpoint.

Scott Gardner

In most good head units, the fader only CUTS the signal, not boost it.  So fading forward should not increase the signal on the front, only cut the signal to the rear channels.  In general, set up your system witht eh fader in the "center" or default position.  The max output voltage on a pre-out is exatly that, the max, and the fader will not increase it.

That's exactly what was thinking.  Thanks.

Scott Gardner