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Can "Gain Setting" change SQ?

post #1 of 22
9/13/08 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
I know "Gain Setting" is to change gain in accordance with impedance of IEMs or cans. Well, my questions is... is there SQ difference between "Gain High" and "Gain Low" setting? I mean, "Gain High & Volume Low" vs "Gain Low & Volume High" with the same IEM.
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post #2 of 22
9/14/08 at 3:04am
That's a great question.

I'm new to this but I'll share my experience. I have been using my Corda 2 Move for a while now with my iPod through ALO LOD to my Atrio m5s. It has always been on "High Gain" and this past weekend I decided to switch it to "Low Gain" to see what would happen.

One huge benefit is greater volume control. I no longer have to worry about tweaking the knob too much or too little since there's a wider range now. (Knob used to sit at 9 o'clock and now it's closer to 12). The other is that the bass has seemed to become more well defined. It could be just me but the past few days I've noticed cleaner, punchy bass coming from my Atrios.

Could it be that, since the volume knob is now less sensitive, I'm using a volume level that I couldn't really 'get to' before? Possibly. But I'm definitely not going back to "High Gain", that's for sure!

Scott
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post #3 of 22
9/14/08 at 12:25pm
This has been discussed before with no clear cut answer. Partly because the testers did not use dB meter to match volumes accurately.

I would argue that if you match the volumes you will find that the sound is the same, provided you can get the same level in low vs high gain settings.
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post #4 of 22
9/14/08 at 12:46pm
I am also worried...i think it affects the Dynamic Range. u no longer feel the punch.


I keep it to 80%...90% causes distortion in iTunes
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post #5 of 22
9/14/08 at 10:29pm
Nocturnal310, what do you keep at 80%-90%? Hopefully not the volume in iTunes. I say so because if you lower the ouput volume in iTunes (in a PC) you do not get bit perfect. At least that is what I have been told.
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post #6 of 22
9/14/08 at 10:40pm
My studies with the Ray Samuels' Predator indicated that there were changes in SQ with gain changes.
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post #7 of 22
11/8/08 at 7:13pm
What changes do you speak of sir?

I really really want to know
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post #8 of 22
11/8/08 at 7:54pm
There would probably be if the amp changes from class A to class AB.
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post #9 of 22
11/8/08 at 8:52pm
Many times, folks think a change in volume relates to a change in SQ. This is false. Gain should not affect SQ, only the amount that you need to move the volume knob. Gain is supposed to match the impedance of your headphones to the amp, transparently. So, I would agree with mrarroyo's previous comments.
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post #10 of 22
11/8/08 at 11:00pm
Lately I have had conversations w/amp builders and they believe that the sound changes slightly when the gain switch is used. I have not been able to detect a difference. Maybe others have.
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post #11 of 22
11/8/08 at 11:12pm
I would think that there would be some. At a higher gain, the amp would be consuming more current from the power supply. But this would be a design decision by the designer/manufacturer.
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post #12 of 22
11/9/08 at 1:44am
I don't know why, but obviously my SR-71A shines particularly with MED gain. With LOW gain, trebles and mids are a little muffled.
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post #13 of 22
11/9/08 at 1:55am
wait isao are you using your blackbird with iem's or large cans at medium gain? I am curious because I have a sr-71a also and right now I am using it with iems so just curious
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post #14 of 22
11/9/08 at 2:21am
I have owned these iBasso headphone amplifiers: T2, P2, D1, D2 Boa/Viper and P3. Times and again, high gain setting has provided better dynamic range than low gain setting.

My ideal gain feature will be automatic gain control (AGC), where the amplifier adjust gain constantly based on amplitude of input signal (feedback loop is necessary). Thus regardless of different signal amplitudes from different audio input sources, output amplitude will be maintained the same and dynamic range maximized without clipping once output volume control has been set. The AGC control avoids clipping of output signal when input amplitude is too high. Setting of output volume control to match headphone characteristic is just a matter of set-and-forget.

Of course such AGC implementatio should not compromise dynamic range and sound quality at all and should not raise cost drastically. Perhaps AGC has already been implemented on chip in some opamp designs. AGC is not a new concept at all, I learned about it some years ago when I was working on read amplifier circuit of hard drive. Since air gap between magnetic head and spinning disc surface vary constantly, AGC is used to maintain level of raw analog read signal before digital decoding can be done on incoming raw bit stream (analog level of digital signal affects digital decoding to certain extent).
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post #15 of 22
11/9/08 at 2:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hockeyb213 View Post
wait isao are you using your blackbird with iem's or large cans at medium gain? I am curious because I have a sr-71a also and right now I am using it with iems so just curious
With sensitive IEMs (LiveWires T1). Noise floor on MED is a little bigger than on LOW but in terms of SQ I prefer MED.
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