Cubase attenuates incoming signals?

Hello!
Found a strange behaviour of Cubase 9 (friend of mine says he’s got the same thing on Cubase 5) :
I send 1kHz to the input channel (tweaked my preamp gain in oder the input meter in Cubase shows exactly 0db).
Then I recorded the incoming signal.
After that I playback it and the meter on master bus shows only -4.5db.
Besides, when I tried to press monitor button the signal was weaker than the one in my mixer board. The audio channel meter shows the same -4.5db. When I change global meter settings to show “input” audio channel meter shows 0 but the master bus is still -4.5.
So I’m a bit confused.
Does Cubase attenuates the incoming signal?
Why does my recorded signal is not equal to the incoming one?
There are no eq, inserts, sends on tracks. All the faders are at 0. Pre-gain is set by default to 0.
Is this a bug or a feature? Or may be I miss something?
It should be like this?

Thanks!

P.S.: First I thought it was a monitoring issue and created a topic in here. Than I recalled about global meters settings and deleted the post. Now I consider it again as an issue.Sorry about deleting the post.


Could this be caused by the stereo “Pan Law” you’re using (-4.5dB)?

Yep! It’s brilliant!
I was thinking about the “magic” number 4.5 and wasn’t able to find any corresponding parameter.
You’re great!
Will check it tomorrow in studio.
Thank you for the hint!