thanks for your response.
i guess. my lack of electronic knowledge is showing up. I hate to admit that some of his measurements are like greek to me. I wish he had a "reference" that stated what each graph is and how tis important and what to look for.
Fine. I do not want to use my tablet or my phone because they are used for other things and are rarely exactly where I want a volume control. Besides, I also prefer the tactile/haptic properties of a physical knob.these USB audio controls I presume are not necessary? If I am controlling my media player from a tablet of phone the volume buttons seem to pass though the volume control to the underlying player
Yes, I sometimes feel the same way. But I think we can gain a lot by reading the very valuable discussions that come up from time to time of these matters on ASR - on the difference between distortion and noise, why frequency response means, the (still confusing, for me) potential implications of ultrasonIcs, and so forth. I also find Google helpful, sometimes.thanks for your response.
i guess. my lack of electronic knowledge is showing up. I hate to admit that some of his measurements are like greek to me. I wish he had a "reference" that stated what each graph is and how tis important and what to look for.
I cannot guarantee it will work for your particular application but I bought it on the chance it would work with mine. It controls Windows system audio and JRiver's internal audio using LAN or USB as output. (Yes, it includes contributing crossover, DSP, etc. in software.)What would be a good way to do systemwide digital volume control in Windows if one was doing a sub crossover in software, such as EKIO, and outputting to a multichannel DAC, (say for example a USB pro audio interface using ASIO drivers? One of those big knobs would be great, I'm just not sure what it should be controlling.
A noob question, Kal: The OP was concerned about reducing SNR by using a digital attenuator to reduce volume. A subsequent poster pointed out that this is unlikely to be a problem in most real-world situations using a good DAC. Nevertheless, does the device you use avoid this problem because, as you say, it is out of the signal path?I cannot guarantee it will work for your particular application but I bought it on the chance it would work with mine. It controls Windows system audio and JRiver's internal audio using LAN or USB as output. (Yes, it includes contributing crossover, DSP, etc. in software.)
I think it's worth emphasizing that dollar for dollar, the negative sonic impact on the fidelity of the signal chain is going to be much greater from an analogue preamp than a digital volume control.
Now, if for some reason the voltage output of your DAC or digital source is too low or too high for your power amp, then of course you will have a problem: if the digital output is too low, you won't be able to get enough volume out of your system; and if it's too high, you will have to attenuate the volume on your DAC/digital source so much that you could potentially start to compromise the bit depth/noise floor of the source (or you might just get annoyed that you can only make use of a very small part of the digital volume control's range).
In that case, you will need a preamp. Similarly, if the output impedance of your DAC/digital source is not a good match for your power amp, you will need a preamp - although I have generally not found this to be a problem. (Ironically, I've only ever found this to be a problem with standalone passive preamps.)
So if you have only digital sources, and your DAC-power amp combo gives you a volume level and range you are happy with, I'd say ditch the preamp. That's what I did, and I have never regretted it.
It certainly does. It give me the option of using no preamp at all or of using my legacy Audio Research MP-1 if I keep it set to a high enough gain that its internal noise is inaudible. The MP1 has volume up/down buttons on both the front panel and remote control. No knob.A noob question, Kal: The OP was concerned about reducing SNR by using a digital attenuator to reduce volume. A subsequent poster pointed out that this is unlikely to be a problem in most real-world situations using a good DAC. Nevertheless, does the device you use avoid this problem because, as you say, it is out of the signal path?
My two cents.Should i just upgrade my dac and continue using my old preamp instead? I would appreciate some insight.
For reference I have a
Lite Audio 68 dac using spdif (i set the volume control on this to max)
Parasound P3 preamp
Parasound HCA3500 power amp
and some heavily modded polk sda 1.2TL's speakers
I have no plans to replace the power amp and the speakers I just wanted to do something different with the dac and pre. to do something new and different as well as get a dac that was cleaner and had some newer tech's from my old one. should I just keep the p3 and replace the dac and use the p3 for volume control.
ALL my source is digitally stored in lossless format.
The RME ADI-2 DAC has balance control.One thing I miss on my HGC DAC/preamp is a balance control. With analog records, balance is often an issue. Especially with mono, getting the center image dead. I think a balance control could be helpful in a room where loudspeakers are not symmetrically placed--where room interactions affect the sound balance. But balance controls are seldom seen on this type of gear.
I don't know what you mean by "lose resolution".with modern DACs you do not lose resolution with digital volume control
The conclusion of which being what I said above.