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Question About Volume Control (Speakers + DAC/Amp)

post #1 of 7
10/6/11 at 12:56pm
Thread Starter 

I have a short, and noobish question about controlling the volume on my cheap set-up. Basically I have a set of powered computer speakers hooked up to a uDAC. The Speakers, and the uDAC both have volume pots. Should I set the uDAC's volume pot to max, and adjust the volume on the speakers? Or should I max the speaker's volume pot, and adjust through the uDAC's? Does it make a difference in sound quality either way?

 

 

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post #2 of 7
10/6/11 at 2:54pm

You want max on the udacs pot and use the speakers volume control.

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post #3 of 7
10/8/11 at 10:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRG1990 View Post

You want max on the udacs pot and use the speakers volume control.

 

Thanks for the reply. Is there as specific reason to do it like this? I don't know much about electronics or audio equipment, so I'm just curious as to why it should work better this way.

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post #4 of 7
10/8/11 at 9:32pm

A more powerful signal is less susceptible to noise, and said noise won't need to be amplified as much (and hence be more obvious) at the end. Also, might get more of the full range of your DAC if volume control was handled digitally.

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post #5 of 7
10/9/11 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pueywei View Post

A more powerful signal is less susceptible to noise, and said noise won't need to be amplified as much (and hence be more obvious) at the end. Also, might get more of the full range of your DAC if volume control was handled digitally.



Interesting. When you say digitally, do you mean by using digital volume controls through the computer? I was under the impression that lowering those caused a slight (maybe not even perceptible...) degradation of sound quality.

 

 

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post #6 of 7
10/9/11 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by extollere View Post

Interesting. When you say digitally, do you mean by using digital volume controls through the computer? I was under the impression that lowering those caused a slight (maybe not even perceptible...) degradation of sound quality.


It only reduces bit depth, which only reduces dynamic range. Unless you listen at volumes far above your ambient volume, you have a good amount of wiggle room for digital volume attenuation.

 

The uDAC-2, and probably the uDAC as well but I'm not sure, has serious distortion issues with audio at 0dBFS (audio at maximum digital volume). Use tags like ReplayGain to lower the digital volume of your music to avoid this. You can probably also adjust your Windows volume down slightly, or your player volume down by -1dB. That's all it takes.

 

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post #7 of 7
10/10/11 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 

Hmmm, I don't really notice distortion with the digital controls at max. I also don't seem to notice a difference if I apply ReplayGain (with or without clipping), or if I lower the volume. I guess for now I will leave the uDAC-2's pot at max, and adjust through the speaker pot.

 

Actually there is a tiny bit of bass distortion, but I'm assuming that's the fault of the speaker (they are cheaper speakers after all) - FWIW, I don't hear this distortion through my headphones when plugged into the uDAC. It's negligible anyways.

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