[TheChillburger]

Hello all, I'm currently using a Xonar DX and a C421 headphone amp. I've been doing a bit of research to try find at what level to properly set my sound card's volume, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer so far.
 
I had read that setting the Xonar DX to 100% volume was the best strategy, but this volume is far too loud through the headphone amp (once you turn up the volume to get past analog channel imbalance). I've heard that setting the software volume too low could cause clipping and a loss of dynamic range, so I was hoping that someone could chime in about what volume will give me the best audio quality?
 
Thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Hello all, I'm currently using a Xonar DX and a C421 headphone amp. I've been doing a bit of research to try find at what level to properly set my sound card's volume, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer so far.
 
I had read that setting the Xonar DX to 100% volume was the best strategy, but this volume is far too loud through the headphone amp (once you turn up the volume to get past analog channel imbalance). I've heard that setting the software volume too low could cause clipping and a loss of dynamic range, so I was hoping that someone could chime in about what volume will give me the best audio quality?
 
Thanks!

Experiment, maybe try with the Xonar DX's volume control at 75%.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheChillburger /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I've heard that setting the software volume too low could cause clipping and a loss of dynamic range, so I was hoping that someone could chime in about what volume will give me the best audio quality?

 
Setting too low volume on the sound card and turning it up on the amplifier cannot cause clipping, but it does reduce the dynamic range. However, with the card having ~110 dB to begin with at full volume, you can reduce it quite a bit before the degradation becomes audible (but do make sure that the digital volume control has 24 bit resolution, rather than 16).

 

[TheChillburger]

Quote:

 
Setting too low volume on the sound card and turning it up on the amplifier cannot cause clipping, but it does reduce the dynamic range. However, with the card having ~110 dB to begin with at full volume, you can reduce it quite a bit before the degradation becomes audible (but do make sure that the digital volume control has 24 bit resolution, rather than 16).

I have the device settings set to 24bit in the Windows settings, so is that all I need to do?