[strooper]

I'm curious about the effect of gain settings and DAC volume (e.g., in Audirvana) on overall sound quality. I recently acquired a Questyle CMA Twelve. Even on the low gain setting, it drives my on-ear phones to my preferred volume by 9 o'clock on the volume dial. I've read elsewhere that the low gain setting is for IEMs. I'm assuming that's so you don't accidentally destroy them by turning the dial too far. Is there a downside to using low gain with high impedance DD phones given that there's way more power available than is needed?

Having the gain on low makes getting a good volume easier (less sensitive to small rotations of the volume pot), so I'd like to keep it there unless I'm missing some benefit of having it on high.

My second question is output volume from Audirvana ("DAC volume"). It defaults to 100% for DACs that don't have software volume control, but you can lower it. I've reduced it 10dB, again to have more control on precise volume. Am I losing resolution by doing this (i.e., chopping of a bit or the like)?

Appreciate any insight.

 

[Roseval]

that the low gain setting is for IEM

Not really. It is for anything high sensitivity, most IEM are but a lot of modern headphone are high sensitivity as well because ment to bedriven by low power devices likes mobiles.

Am I losing resolution by doing this

Depends
if you have a 16 bit recording and a 24 bit DAC, you can lower by 48 dB and still have the entire sample in the register.

 

[gregorio]

Even on the low gain setting, it drives my on-ear phones to my preferred volume by 9 o'clock on the volume dial.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t really tell us anything. The 9 o’clock position is relative to what, what positions are the minimum and maximum?

Is there a downside to using low gain with high impedance DD phones given that there's way more power available than is needed?

There can be issues with amps at very low settings. The relative amount of noise or distortion can increase and/or it can introduce a channel imbalance. However, this very much depends on the design of the individual amp.

My second question is output volume from Audirvana ("DAC volume"). It defaults to 100% for DACs that don't have software volume control, but you can lower it. I've reduced it 10dB, again to have more control on precise volume. Am I losing resolution by doing this (i.e., chopping of a bit or the like)?

That also depends. If you lower your digital volume and raise your amp volume to compensate this can cause issues, more noise and/or distortion for example. However, this needs to be fairly extreme before such potential issues become audible and you should be absolutely fine with a 10dB reduction.

Ideally, you would want the digital level to be 100% or 3dB - 6dB lower than 100% but if that results in needing a very low amp setting (which causes the above mentioned issues), then a lower digital volume would be preferable. If you need to turn your digital volume down 20dB or more then really you are using the wrong amp for your HPs.

G