[tim3320070]

I am still waiting on a new preamp I have on order but in the mean time I have been using my Ref-8 DAC directly to my speaker amp (via XLR), controlling my volume in MediaMonkey (Win7 64). I understand this is not the best but the sound is pretty good.
 
What am I actually doing to improve things by using a preamp? Facts, not conjecture please.

 

[FauDrei]

Well, when you feed CD music to your DAC it goes in 16 bit "words" 44100 times per second. Those 16 bits define dynamics from "silence" to loudest signal.
 
When you lower the volume in MediaMonkey, you actually alter the data in those 16 bits and proportionally lower them. Lowered they go from "silence" (which remains the same) to "new loudest signal" which is now lower and, depending on attenuation, may require less bits to present lowered dynamics. Even though you still are feeding your DAC with 16 bit "words" 44100 times per second, you are practically compressing the dynamic range of your music.
 
With preamp the dynamic range of your music remain untouched (100%, "bit perfect") and, depending on the quality of your preamp, you can listen at very low levels and still experience the dynamic "slam" of your music.
 
Hope this helped Tim. Don't know to explain it better.

 

[tim3320070]

Thanks. I guess the question is does it sound worse. I'll know in about 3-4 weeks. In any case, I can't really use it this way as I have other components to hook up beyond the computer. Plus I have nothing to hook my headphones up to.

 

[FauDrei]

Well, IMO, attenuation is, in majority of nowadays cases, still implemented better in analogue domain, so yes - it probably is worse. But I'd say the question would be - does it sound perceivably worse? The answer to this is dependent on the quality of the system IMO.
 
Sad to hear you let your Phoenix go.

 

[tim3320070]

I let it go for a good reason.
 
Another question- if implemented properly, could electronic volume control in a preamp (not via computer) be as good or better than an analog volume pot (stepped like in the Phoenix)?

 

[axw]

For best results, try using dithering -- you may go with foobar2000, it provides dithering as an option. Foobar controlled volume (with dithering!) sounds much better than any analogue volume control (from Audio-GD) I ever heard.
 
This is backed by trying Phoenix and NFB-7. Phoenix will be listed as "for sale" some time next weeks for exactly this reason. Compared to digital volume control, it degrades sound by a significant amount even connected via custom ACSS cables. The same effect is observable on NFB-10ES. Using volume pot is like downgrading to hi-fi from a hi-end: still very correct but the magic and suble nuances are, sadly, gone.
 
I think I see why the so much praised Anedio dac has digital volume control..

 

[FauDrei]

Well if your question was about stepped attenuators/relay networks against classic analogue pots - the answer is in general in favour of stepped attenuators/relay-resistor networks. So in general - yes, "electronic" volume controls are better... but, as always, it depends on actual implementation.

 

[tim3320070]

Actually I meant a non-analog volume vs analog (like in the Musiland MD-10 but presumed higher quality).