Adjusting volume in Chromecast app and on active speakers

[steak]

Disclaimer: no music expert expert here, actually quite ignorant, but not totally.

I sometimes plug my Chromecast Audio to the jack Aux In of various amplified devices such as Adam A8X, Tivoli Model One,... as it's such convenient solution for a quick music listening session from Spotify on my phone.

In terms of getting the best musical experience, I'm wondering if I should crank the Chromecast volume in the app to the max and adjust the volume only on the physical device or if there is any reason to set the volume in the app to 50% and be able to use the physical amp of the speakers at a higher level.
In other words, is it better to send as much digital information as possible to an analog amp or is there a sweet spot where an analog amp performs best in terms of its volume level?

Thanks

 

[gregorio]

In other words, is it better to send as much digital information as possible to an analog amp or is there a sweet spot where an analog amp performs best in terms of its volume level?

You can only send analogue information to an analogue amp of course. Generally amps perform best at or around their nominal level, typically around 40% - 70% of their max output setting. Outside that range will likely start increasing the amount of noise and distortion the amp produces, although that‘s only a rough range, some amps may have a significantly wider range than that.

What you’re discussing is called “gain staging”, as a general rule you want to keep your digital level at or around 100%. Slightly less than 100% (say 98%) maybe beneficial in certain cases. Having a very low digital setting (say 40% or lower) and compensating with a high amp setting is poor gain staging and very likely to introduce audible artefacts (noise for example).

G

 

[steak]

Thanks for the answer.

That's more or less what I suspected.

The thing is that the Adam A8X are so powerful that if I set the Chromecast app to 98% and the speakers to 40%, it's already pretty loud, so I guess I'll stick to 98% for the digital level and use the amp around 25-30% and that should be fine.

 

[gregorio]

The thing is that the Adam A8X are so powerful that if I set the Chromecast app to 98% and the speakers to 40%, it's already pretty loud, so I guess I'll stick to 98% for the digital level and use the amp around 25-30% and that should be fine.

The Adam A8X are studio monitors, so are designed to be used with a studio “monitor controller”. However, as you say, you’ll probably be fine with the amp around 25-30% and while ideally 100% or 98% on the digital level is optimal, a bit lower, say 90%, shouldn’t be audibly inferior.

G