gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
You're absolutely right, and thanks for making me more aware of this. I'm not sure RME has done us a favor with having two knobs but when I set 0 dB fixed output I expected the "standard" line out of 2 volts, give or take.Thanks mate and sorry for the kafuffle . At 1.7 volts that is indeed a good safe setting to recommend . My concern was that if we talk about output settings without referencing the reference setting a possible damaging scenario arises . Lets say someone has just bought a second-hand pro unit . Since this is the most active RME thread they come here looking for a recommended setting to connect their old amp . They read volume setting 0db recommended a number of times and take that advice . If the reference setting was set to auto or +24 by the previous owner they will be selecting a 12 volt line out . Depending on the amp that may be enough for the magic smoke to escape .
I didn't touch the defaults for levels, I didn't read that section of manual, and I'm probably under-driving my amp.
In another setup recently I found that the Chord Mojo sounded significantly fuller than a new low-end R2R DAC I bought, when driving the same amp. And I tried them both with another amp and the results were the same, the Mojo was clearly better.
It turns out the line out setting on the Mojo is fairly hot (I would have to check the thread here on headfi, but I think closer to 2.7V) and the R2R is rated at the expected 2V. When I used variable output on the R2R and cranked it up a bit the bass improved, the sound got fuller and the difference between the two changed to differences in character instead of one being better than the other.
My Brooklyn is less surprising