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Does it matter where I adjust the volume level?

post #1 of 6
1/1/12 at 2:07am
Thread Starter 

I'm using the Xonar with the HD-600 and I want to know if it's necessary to set the volume on my player (Foobar+WASAPI) to the max and use the knob on the Xonar interface to adjust the volume?

 

It's pretty irritating when I forgot to turn down the volume in the Xonar after I exit from any game and my ears got blasted by the player at max volume level when I want to listen to some music afterwards.

 

Can I just leave the Xonar volume settings where it is and use the Foobar to adjust the volume instead?

 

Will this affect the audio quality?

 

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post #2 of 6
1/1/12 at 2:25am

Pretty sure that an audio player's only option for lowering volume levels comes in the form of digital attenuation which isn't a good thing.  This isn't a problem I've ever run into, I can't figure out why your games play at such a lower volume than your music.  

 

Wait, I did run into a funny situation where using the toslink out on my X-Fi gave me lower sound levels than USB, and changing windos sound level changed the volume of my DAC/amp.  I tried this first under WASAPI and froze my computer for some reason.  I was only experimenting at the time, so I swapped it to use direct sound, and found the audio coming from the player to be just as quiet.  Are you using an external Dac/amp, or is it coming right out of your computer?  If you've got an external DAC, you could set foobar to use a different input as a reminder to change your volume level, nothing would play until you switched inputs.  

 

Oh, wait, Xonar right into HD-600's.  I imagine what's happening is somehow related, the game's audio is being lowered by some setting but the audio player is skipping it because of WASAPI.  Is windows sound turned all the way up?


Edited by Phos - 1/1/12 at 2:27am
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post #3 of 6
1/1/12 at 5:50am
Thread Starter 

Like I said, my foobar is already at max volume so I only had to turn the knob a little to get to comfortable listening levels. But when I play games, I have to turn my volume to about 50%(at high gain settings). The problem occurs when I forget to turn down  the volume and launch Foobar. With foobar at max volume and my knob at 50% in high gain, my ears are going to explode.

 

So, here I am thinking about whether I should just leave the knob at 50% at high gain settings and use Foobar to adjust the volume instead.

 

Oh, my windows sound is at 50%. Xonar is my only source.

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post #4 of 6
1/1/12 at 2:06pm

Turn windows sound all the way up.  Games should play at the same level as WASAPI applications.

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post #5 of 6
1/1/12 at 2:11pm

Feel free to alter Foobar's volume if you want. Digital attenuation isn't as evil as most people think, though it does pose some problems. To my knowledge the card's volume control is entirely digital anyway (ignoring the various gain settings which are analog).

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post #6 of 6
1/1/12 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Head Injury View Post

Feel free to alter Foobar's volume if you want. Digital attenuation isn't as evil as most people think, though it does pose some problems. To my knowledge the card's volume control is entirely digital anyway (ignoring the various gain settings which are analog).



Gain settings not analog on STX. It is digital volume limiter. Knocks off top 1-3 bits volume compared to max "gain". Actual gain of headphone amp is fixed at +12db compared to line out. But otherwise you are correct that digital volume controls not the satan that most make it out to be.

 


Edited by germanium - 1/1/12 at 5:46pm
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