[dsymbol]

Am I doing it right?
1. turn on the speakers, minimize their volume level.
2. turn on the DAC at minimum volume level.
3. play music.
4. slowly maximize speakers' volume
5. slowly increasing DAC's volume.
 
To turn off:
 
1. minimize speakers' volume
2. turn off speakers' power.
3. turn off DAC
4. turn off music player.
 
Thanks for any advice

 

[MindsMirror]

You normally want to maximize the volume from the DAC and use the speaker's volume to achieve the desired level. I think the only step you need to worry about is turning down the speaker's volume before you turn them on or start playing music, to avoid accidentally playing something too loud.

 

[castleofargh]

@dsymbol it does look like a lot of efforts for very little reason. what are you afraid of exactly?

 

[dsymbol]

  @dsymbol it does look like a lot of efforts for very little reason. what are you afraid of exactly?

My combo is Eve audio sc205 & iFi nano iDSD DAC if that makes any difference.
 
I was told to max out speakers' volume & use DAC's volume for desired volume level.
 
So, after listening to the music, I just turned off the power button of the speakers. 
 
It happened once that when I started listening to the music again, I turned on the speakers' power button (the speakers' volume was still at max level), & DAC's volume was at minimum level. & as soon as I hit play, the speakers got deafening loud. I was worried that I'd blow up my speakers.
 
 
 

  You normally want to maximize the volume from the DAC and use the speaker's volume to achieve the desired level. I think the only step you need to worry about is turning down the speaker's volume before you turn them on or start playing music, to avoid accidentally playing something too loud.

Ohh wow... thanks. I thought I should maximize the speakers' volume & use DAC's volume to achieve the desired level.
Thanks for the correction.
 
ok...so, lets say that DAC's volume is max'ed out, speakers' volume is half way & that's the desired volume level.
 
To power off:
1. Turn off speakers' power button & leave the volume level as is (no need to turn it all the way down).
2. Turn off DAC.
 
To start listening to music (after hooking up everything):
1. Power on the speakers.
2. Hit Play
3. Slowly turn on DAC's volume knob to the max level.
 
Am I correct?
 
I just wanna avoid blowing up my speakers
Thanks for any advice guys!!!

 

[castleofargh]

oh ok, so you have 2 problems here:
finding out how to get the best sound by setting up the volume at different points
and your playback loudness apparently not always sticking to what you had previously set.
 
 
clearly setting the speakers at max loudness is a bad idea on both accounts. that's how you might hurt yourself or blow up your speakers. only when they are maxed out can they really have a dangerous output. and you do not have to lower the volume everytime!
as a general guide, but you're not handling TNT here, this is really just some wide guidance for sound fidelity. set your computer volume rather close to the max( if you like to use your media player to change the volume level because like me you're lazy ^_^, then try to output the music in 24bit even when playing a MP3, that will give your some free bits to use as volume control). then the IDSD, I didn't know there was volume control on the RCA output, if you really want to be thorough, look how much max voltage gets out of the RCA output, and if it's close to 2V, then keep it maxed out or at least rather close to that, because that's what any powered speaker would be expecting. again it's not a perfect science, if you notice some extra background noise or clipping at some point, just change the volume level until you no longer have those problems. and if it always sounds the same, then you know you're worrying too much

.
 
and then just set your speakers as loud as you enjoy your music and you're done for life. if you want to change the loudness again, do it from your computer if you're lazy like I am, or from your speakers if you're really scared about losing the quietest bits of the record. no need to touch anything when turning ON or OFF.

 

[dsymbol]

  oh ok, so you have 2 problems here:
finding out how to get the best sound by setting up the volume at different points
and your playback loudness apparently not always sticking to what you had previously set.
 
 
clearly setting the speakers at max loudness is a bad idea on both accounts. that's how you might hurt yourself or blow up your speakers. only when they are maxed out can they really have a dangerous output. and you do not have to lower the volume everytime!
as a general guide, but you're not handling TNT here, this is really just some wide guidance for sound fidelity. set your computer volume rather close to the max( if you like to use your media player to change the volume level because like me you're lazy ^_^, then try to output the music in 24bit even when playing a MP3, that will give your some free bits to use as volume control). then the IDSD, I didn't know there was volume control on the RCA output, if you really want to be thorough, look how much max voltage gets out of the RCA output, and if it's close to 2V, then keep it maxed out or at least rather close to that, because that's what any powered speaker would be expecting. again it's not a perfect science, if you notice some extra background noise or clipping at some point, just change the volume level until you no longer have those problems. and if it always sounds the same, then you know you're worrying too much

.
 
and then just set your speakers as loud as you enjoy your music and you're done for life. if you want to change the loudness again, do it from your computer if you're lazy like I am, or from your speakers if you're really scared about losing the quietest bits of the record. no need to touch anything when turning ON or OFF.

Hi @castleofargh
Thank you for your detailed explanation.
 
I looked up iDSD's manual (only 1 little piece of paper) & couldnt find where it says max voltage but google's telling me it's Output Voltage: over 1.65V (over 100Ω)
 
Per your advice:
- DAC's volume is at 90% max.
- Speaker's volume is at -3. its max is at 3. So i'm not even half way loud yet (set & forget about it, right?)
- Computer's volume is at 90% (set & forget about it)
- Foobar's volume is at 50%. (I will only use Foobar's volume for loudness)
 
I feel that i'm on the right track because no way I'll blow up my speakers now. Just have to turn on & off their's power button & hit play. Does it sound about right?
Thanks again for the advice.

 

[castleofargh]

that will work fine. set the output in foobar file/preferences/output however your idsd shows up as a device there, and output format set to 24bit. if the drivers are right you should have it available.
 
 maybe set foobar a little higher in volume level. the computer volume would be fine at 100%, it's digital volume, so 100% won't put pressure on anything ^_^. 
keep some headroom in foobar just enough so that you can enjoy your stuff as loud as you want just by raising that slider, but again no point in leaving too much headroom if you have no use for it. it's really a practical judgment here.
 
if one day you become paranoid about bit depth(you can look up bit perfect or wasapi or asio for foobar), then and only then, you may decide to max out computer and foobar to get all of the bit depth you can. in practice as long as I keep foobar output at 24bit I can hardy believe anybody would be able to notice the difference on my laptop. but I'm always rooting for practicality over high fidelity. others will not share that mindset.
but already your life should have improved compared to turning knobs in fear

.

 

[dsymbol]

  that will work fine. set the output in foobar file/preferences/output however your idsd shows up as a device there, and output format set to 24bit. if the drivers are right you should have it available.
 
 maybe set foobar a little higher in volume level. the computer volume would be fine at 100%, it's digital volume, so 100% won't put pressure on anything ^_^. 
keep some headroom in foobar just enough so that you can enjoy your stuff as loud as you want just by raising that slider, but again no point in leaving too much headroom if you have no use for it. it's really a practical judgment here.
 
if one day you become paranoid about bit depth(you can look up bit perfect or wasapi or asio for foobar), then and only then, you may decide to max out computer and foobar to get all of the bit depth you can. in practice as long as I keep foobar output at 24bit I can hardy believe anybody would be able to notice the difference on my laptop. but I'm always rooting for practicality over high fidelity. others will not share that mindset.
but already your life should have improved compared to turning knobs in fear

.

Thank @castleofargh for very informative advice.
Much appreciated !!! 

 

 

[zozoxkarii]

I normally turn my speakers to full volume and adjust volume on the dac, but I am using a studio mixing setup (studio monitors, etc.)