Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Is there any digital volume control that is as transparent as the volume knob of a headphone amplifier?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Is there any digital volume control that is as transparent as the volume knob of a headphone...

post #1 of 4
9/11/11 at 10:50am
Thread Starter 

I am a bit new to computer audio.  I have tries I tunes, Amarra, Pure Music, and Fidelia.  Many of these programs have advanced dithering which does a nice job on te volume- but none of them are as transparent as controlling my volume directly on my BHSE headphone amp.

 

Is there any software out there that can do as good a job as the volume on my headphone amp. or has technology not got there yet?

 

 

If not- is there any relitively inexpensive solid state preamp you would suggest?

 

Thanks..

Reply
post #2 of 4
9/11/11 at 11:12am

By design you will lose some resolution using digital volume control.

This is a nice article comparing analog and digital volume control

http://www.resonessencelabs.com/invicta/invicta_analog_vs_digital_volume.pdf

 

 

Reply
post #3 of 4
9/11/11 at 3:24pm

It really depends. When people talk about digital volume control limiting sound quality (or, specifically, bit depth or snr) they are usually talking about a couple of specific implementations where processing is applied to the signal before it is converted into an analog voltage. Most of the time these controls are really extra circuitry built into the DAC itself. There are digital volume controls that work differently and without the same trade-offs, you can have a digitally controlled analog volume circuitry. In fact there are a number of chips available from the big name DAC companies that perform volume attenuation with better than 130db SNR/THD, better than most analog solid state preamps.

Reply
post #4 of 4
9/18/11 at 2:21pm

XXHighEnd is said to have volume controle that does not compress the dynamics but I can't confirm it as I didn't manage to set it up on my PC. From what I've read it's a very non-compromise player.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Is there any digital volume control that is as transparent as the volume knob of a headphone amplifier?