Download a SPL meter app to your smartphone and roughly measure what the dB output is from the Utopia earcups driven at the volume setting you listen at (similar to the pic I posted in the Utopia thread - you don't really need the foam covering the earcup like I have). This will get you a ballpark measurement and you can then be sure if you and those around you simply like listening really loud, or if the output is actually low for the DAVE's set volume.
Okay, I did this. With the DAVE at 0db with one SPL meter I was reading in the 70 dbs and with another SPL meter in the 90dbs with the FUs. I think the 2nd SPL meter is a little more wonky because in a dead silent room it's reading in the 50db range. The first SPL meter which gave me 70 dbs at 0db on the DAVE, in a dead silent room it is reading 18-20dbs.
Evolvist's situation is strange since I also listen to Utopia with DAVE in the -45 to -25dB range and even though some visitors crank it up to -30 to -10dB range, I've never had anyone need -20 to 0dB with the Utopia. If Roon is playing bit-perfect at fixed volume, I suspect either Windows/OS X is not outputting in a bit-perfect manner to Chord DAVE.
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Audio_Setup_Basics
I don't use Roon so I may not really know what I'm talking about.
Do you have Roon send the signal directly to Chord DAVE or is the Roon signal sent to the System Output audio driver. Because if it is, it's possible that your Windows/OS X volume control is still on so it is attenuating Roon's bit-perfect signal to a lower volume digitally. To me, that's the only thing that makes sense.
Yeah, I've read all of these schinitz. I've got a clear signal path with all purple in Roon.
seems to me the first thing to do would be to change the source and see if it differs...something is amiss for sure
I hooked up my DAVE straight to my laptop, using JRiver, with the Cord ASIO driver and I'm still getting the same levels. I mean -40 db is very, very low if 0db is considered unity gain. But, I guess we're not measuring dbs with the DAVE like that, are we? Evidently not if 0db on the DAVE is considered to be very loud.
With my old headphone amp, an SPL Auditor, comfortable listening was right below or above unity gain at 0db, with a fixed signal coming from my DAC.
Yet, regardless of this, and if I can hear a wasp fart at 3ft away or not, something is wrong.
So my 13-year old son who is not used to listening to loud music. I put on some metal. "Battery" from Metallica's
Master of Puppets album. He has the FUs on his head and I start off at -38db. He can hear the music obviously. Eventually he settles on -16db which sounds comfortable to him. For me the same track, where I can really feel it, is at -10db. That's a 6db difference. Of course I'm 43, so imagine my ears aren't what they used to be. Still, when he listened at -10db he felt no discomfort and said that it wasn't too loud. He was rocking out!
I'm thinking am I losing my hearing? Well, I can still rub my fingers by my ears and hear the swirls rub together with no problem. My son was about 20ft away from me, and he whispered things and I could hear him. So, really, I don't know What. Amplitude in a natural environment doesn't seem like a problem.
And btw, this is the 2nd DAVE I've had at my home, so it's not this DAVE or that one.
It seems I recall Rob Watts saying something like at +6db the DAVE would introduce distortion, but that it didn't matter at the level because you would be blowing out your ears anyway. I wonder if that implies good listening levels are anything below that mark, within reason. I know that +6dbs would tear my head off.
Lastly of note, I have almost zero dynamically compressed music in my collection. I just don't listen to it. It hurts my ears. I'm sure with some of those hyper compressed/limited albums that the volume must come way down lest it drives one's ears wonky.
There's only one last thing I can think of, and that's to contact the cats who sold me my mRendu + SonicOrbiter.