Volume discrepancy between amps?

[thebrassthief]

I don't know if this is an odd question or not, but it seems odd to me.

So I've been using some TH-X00's with a Shiit Magni Uber + Modi Multi. Tonight, I decided to listen to some crappy music for kicks and the volume was super loud on it so I had to turn the amp way down, almost to zero. When it was almost zero I noticed that the left channel on the headphone lost sound but the right channel still had just a little bit of music still playing and then lost all volume when turned to zero. I thought this was really weird. I tried it with a lot of other music and it happened with all of that too. I just got the headphones so I was internally freaking out about getting a pair with a defect but then I remembered I had an O2/ODAC combo in my desk so I hooked that up and tried that to see if it was an amp issue. It kinda is. On the O2/ODAC, when I'm lowering the volume to zero it will actually shift sound to the left ear more, then go back to both ears and then the sound doesn't even when all the way down. It's extremely faint but I can still hear music with the O2/ODAC knob all the way down.

When they're turned up proper I can't seem to tell if there are any balance issues. These issues also happen with my K7XX's, so it's not a single headphone issue (thank God).

Is this normal that amps will have these odd volume discrepancies like this?

 

[atarione]

it is called channel imbalance,  it is pretty common unfortunately especially on lower priced gear.
 
many times it only shows itself at lower volumes..
 
probably... if you don't hear it at normal listening volumes I just wouldn't worry about it...

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I don't know if this is an odd question or not, but it seems odd to me.

So I've been using some TH-X00's with a Shiit Magni Uber + Modi Multi. Tonight, I decided to listen to some crappy music for kicks and the volume was super loud on it so I had to turn the amp way down, almost to zero. When it was almost zero I noticed that the left channel on the headphone lost sound but the right channel still had just a little bit of music still playing and then lost all volume when turned to zero. I thought this was really weird. I tried it with a lot of other music and it happened with all of that too. I just got the headphones so I was internally freaking out about getting a pair with a defect but then I remembered I had an O2/ODAC combo in my desk so I hooked that up and tried that to see if it was an amp issue. It kinda is. On the O2/ODAC, when I'm lowering the volume to zero it will actually shift sound to the left ear more, then go back to both ears and then the sound doesn't even when all the way down. It's extremely faint but I can still hear music with the O2/ODAC knob all the way down.

When they're turned up proper I can't seem to tell if there are any balance issues. These issues also happen with my K7XX's, so it's not a single headphone issue (thank God).

Is this normal that amps will have these odd volume discrepancies like this?

 

It's called channel imbalance. It's innate in analogue potentiometers, although better amplifiers - through a much lower low gain setting, for example the Meier Cantate.2 uses -10dB and +4dB settings - can drastically reduce that to the point that the same amp can drive IEMs despite being a high power desktop amplifier.

 

Current generation Meier amps use a digital potentiometer with an analogue control, ie, you have a rotary volume knob but there is no actual potentiometer like on other amps smack behind it. It doesn't work in the digital stage either. Rather it's just a high tech pot with more points of control but instead of hooking up buttons or a remote receiver and a screen, Meier put in an ADC to interpret the movement of the rotary knob for the digital control. So while you can't have tuning as fine as seeing a number, you can easily twist a knob, which is great if you want to go from 3/4 down to zero immediately (like if you clicked on something that has some sound turned up too high).

 

[thebrassthief]

It's called channel imbalance. It's innate in analogue potentiometers, although better amplifiers - through a much lower low gain setting, for example the Meier Cantate.2 uses -10dB and +4dB settings - can drastically reduce that to the point that the same amp can drive IEMs despite being a high power desktop amplifier.

Current generation Meier amps use a digital potentiometer with an analogue control, ie, you have a rotary volume knob but there is no actual potentiometer like on other amps smack behind it. It doesn't work in the digital stage either. Rather it's just a high tech pot with more points of control but instead of hooking up buttons or a remote receiver and a screen, Meier put in an ADC to interpret the movement of the rotary knob for the digital control. So while you can't have tuning as fine as seeing a number, you can easily twist a knob, which is great if you want to go from 3/4 down to zero immediately (like if you clicked on something that has some sound turned up too high).

I only know some of these words but I think I get what you're saying.

 

[tomb]

 

It's called channel imbalance. It's innate in analogue potentiometers, although better amplifiers - through a much lower low gain setting, for example the Meier Cantate.2 uses -10dB and +4dB settings - can drastically reduce that to the point that the same amp can drive IEMs despite being a high power desktop amplifier.

Current generation Meier amps use a digital potentiometer with an analogue control, ie, you have a rotary volume knob but there is no actual potentiometer like on other amps smack behind it. It doesn't work in the digital stage either. Rather it's just a high tech pot with more points of control but instead of hooking up buttons or a remote receiver and a screen, Meier put in an ADC to interpret the movement of the rotary knob for the digital control. So while you can't have tuning as fine as seeing a number, you can easily twist a knob, which is great if you want to go from 3/4 down to zero immediately (like if you clicked on something that has some sound turned up too high).

I only know some of these words but I think I get what you're saying.

 
It's in the volume control.  Some of them have great channel matching all the way down to low volumes, but many do not.
 
When he's referring to gain for improving this, that controls what position on the volume range results in a comfortable volume level.  When the gain "pushes" the comfortable volume level out to the middle of the volume control range, that leakage and channel mis-matching reduces to below audibility at the low end of the volume control.
 
Note that "gain" is not connected with "power."  The loudness of your amplifier relative to the position of the volume knob has little to do with power - it's gain.