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digital or analog volume control?

I am presently running my dac direct to my amplifiers using the digital volume control of foobar (for ripped cds) and MPCHC (for movies).  When I play movies on MPC it indicates playback at 32 bit floating point, and from what I have read, Foobar does the same, and both sound great to me. I am having a dac modified (Monarchy audio M24) and my tech has given me the option of direct out (like I am using now - with no analog volume control) or either an alps or ldr type volume control - at added expense, the latter the most expensive.  Is the analog volume control better sounding than the digital that am presently using?       
majorc

Showing 4 responses by auxinput

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
There is controversy in this industrial as to whether a digital volume is just as good as analog volume control.  At 32 bits, most engineers say it doesn't matter.  I have always been of the opinion that digital volume can be compromise, especially at low listening levels.

That being said, adding an analog volume control to your output could affect the output impedance driving the amplifier.  You are, essentially, placing a "passive preamp" between the DAC and the amp.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
You may want to check with the person who is doing the modification.  If he places the volume control before the line stage, then you are good.  The line stage will have its own gain and voltage to drive the input impedance of the amplifier.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
But on your placette passive, the extra cable could definitely affect how clean the sound was, especially if you are using copper cables with gold-plated RCA/XLR (gold-plated will warm the sound and roll off the highs).
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
If you are happy with the performance of the digital volume output, then just continue to use that.  If you want a good analog volume, maybe look into an active preamp.  That can get expensive for something decent and it will also effect the sonic signature somewhat (but not necessarily in a bad way).
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