Well, with Canon XH-A1 the input pots have to be turned all the way open, resulting in more than 90 dB S/N ratio... Perfect. So it is the results which rule, not what you feel about the angle of those little knobs...
Test it, record test tone (should be at -20 dBFS) and silence (anything below -70 dBFS is fine) from the mixer and analyze the audio track. I had loud peaks at -4 dBFS and noise floor at -90 dBSF and quit worrying about the pots.
