Volume control on studio monitors.

[Trist]

Hi, my current setup is foobar > Audinst HUD-MX1 > ADAM A3X.
The way I control the volume now is maxing windows/foobar volume and keeping the volume on my monitors the same while adjusting the volume with my Audinst MX1. I was just wondering if this is the best way to control the volume.

 

[JRG1990]

The best way would be to max the Audinst aswell and just use the monitors volume control.

 

[geetar7]

I second that.  What JRG1990 describes is good gain staging, as it is will to give you optimal signal-to-noise performance.
 

 

[EnOYiN]

While it may not be the best way to go about things you could also consider whether or not it's the most convenient way and whether or not you can actually notice any diffence in SQ. That said. The best way (most likely) is to turn everything up to 100% and to control the volume with the last device in the chain. i.e. what JRG1990 said.

 

[germanium]

Given that these are studio monitors using the volume control on them is extremely inconvenient & unnessesary not to mention would not even be tolerated in a production environment as the volume controls are seperate & difficult to get perfectly balanced. they need to be perfectly balanced at thier max intended volume & left there. Use you computer volume control to adjust volume making sure that the sample bit depth is set to 24 bit in you operating system.
 
Max intended volume does not mean max volume but the max volume you intend to use & that is within the power capability of the monitors amps. This maximizes the range of available volumes available from your computer.
 
You should not hear any degradation with it setup this way. There is too much misinformation on this subject curculating on these forums. The easiest way here is in fact the best way. Bit perfect ASIO drivers that remove any volume control from the computer are unnessessary, Just use WASAPI. Does essentially the same thing but doesn't rob you of volume control. Sound quality is the same. WASAPI though will only support those sample rates that are supported by your sound device so some files may not play if unsuported by your hardware configuration which is funny because the suposed bit perfect ASIO drivers for my souncard will play them but WASAPI won't.
 
Looking at your USB DAC I'm not sure of the quaily of the volume control in it though you could use it instead of the windows volume control if it tracks well channel to channel, This is the bane of most cheap analog volume pots is they don't track well. If the volume tracks well & you hear no shift in the image when adjesting the volume pot then you are good to go. If you do hear a shift in the audio image then use the windows volume control asd this will maintain perfect channel balance.
 
Found a review that indicated very good tracking of volume control pot on your USB DAC so I would go ahead & use that.

 

[Somnambulist]

I just chucked a TC Electronics Level Pilot in between the DAC and speakers. It's just a volume control with 2 male and 2 female short XLRs. I just plug the input ones into the DAC then my XLR cables into the output ones and those go into the speakers. It sits on the desk not drawing too much attention to itself, turns nice and smoothly, no complaints here. I don't max the volume on each speaker as otherwise you don't get as much 'play' with the volume from quiet to deafening; they're both at about 50%.

 

[Roseval]

Quote:

Bit perfect ASIO drivers that remove any volume control from the computer are unnessessary, Just use WASAPI. Does essentially the same thing but doesn't rob you of volume control.

Wonder if this is correct.
WASAPI in exclusive mode bypasses the Win mixer and as a consequence disables system volume.
WASAPI in shared mode uses the mixer so volume control at the expense of not being bit perfect as the mixer dithers the output.

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Wonder if this is correct.
WASAPI in exclusive mode bypasses the Win mixer and as a consequence disables system volume.
WASAPI in shared mode uses the mixer so volume control at the expense of not being bit perfect as the mixer dithers the output.

Didn't for me & I was using it in exclusive mode. Nothing else could play while WASAPI was in use but the program using it & I still had volume control. No unsupported files would play either so there was also so no sample rate conversion unlike with the standard windows seven audio service. At max volume I believe it was bit perfect with WASAPI  exclusive mode but volume control not disabled for me. In the standard windows seven audio shared service  you set the bit depth & sample rate desired your self & in this mode unsuppoted sample rates will play but not in WASAPI exclusive mode nor can any other program access the audio while working in exclusive mode. With the bit perfect ASIO drivers for my soundcard there was no ability to use the system volume control. but it was appearant that sample rate conversion still worked as it still played the unsupported sample rate files (88.2 & 176.4KHZ) that were not playable in exclusive mode WASAPI. Note that with the bit perfect ASIO drivers you can still use the programs own volume control, just not the windows volume control.
 

 

[germanium]

Quote:

I just chucked a TC Electronics Level Pilot in between the DAC and speakers. It's just a volume control with 2 male and 2 female short XLRs. I just plug the input ones into the DAC then my XLR cables into the output ones and those go into the speakers. It sits on the desk not drawing too much attention to itself, turns nice and smoothly, no complaints here. I don't max the volume on each speaker as otherwise you don't get as much 'play' with the volume from quiet to deafening; they're both at about 50%.

I do not recomment passive preamps or stand alone volume controls unless you have some very very low capacitance cables as capacitance makes a huge difference especially with instruments like piano. It takes the life right out of the piano sound even with cables that are moderately low capactance. Even with very very low capacitance cables runs must be very short & connector capacitace must also be factored in as well as it does little good to have the lowest capacitance cable & saddle it with connectors that have relatively high capcitance. I prefer to keep all capactance below 100pf. This includes cable & connectors total.
 
I've expermented with this route some years ago & yes while it can sound good it take a lot of work to get it to sound it's best. The last cabling I had when I was still using my passive preamp was only 56pf for .5 meter cable, 1 meter was less than 80pf. This includes the connectors. That is the lowest I could get & I had to put it together myself. The sound with this cable was excellent beating all my previous systems active or not. My computer now though still sounds even better & I don't even have to worry about capacitance with it as the output impedance is low enough so as not to have any loss of audio. All instuments including piano sound correct running my internally bi-amped speakers straight off my soundcard.