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Volume control question

I wasn't sure if I should post my question here or under the Digital section but I figured this section gets a bit more traffic and its probably more relevant. I was reading a couple of articles talking about how digital volume controls could negatively affect sound quality, bit-stripping, etc. My bottom line takeaway was its not a good thing. This made me think about those of us who have streamers which provide a user mobile application which allows volume control among other things like music selection, etc. Is this considered a "digital" volume control? Is it better to set the volume to "fixed" as opposed to "variable" on the device and control the volume from the preamp? I haven't done a blindfold A/B test but I don't think I can tell a difference. Anyone else wondered about this or I'm just thinking too much...

Thanks. 

128x128kalali
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kalali's avatar
kalali OP
1,977 posts
 

stfoth, greatly informative exchange in that link. Thanks for sharing. Just to avoid any potential bit-stripping, I always keep the volume control "slider" on the app above 50% and lower the volume from my preamp for lower volume listening. I suppose the best practice would be to set the volume on the Bluesound, or any streamer/DAC, to "fixed" which is basically a unity gain and control the volume in the analog domain using the preamp. It would be quite practical if the preamp has a remote control.


P.S. In hindsight, I should have posted this under Digital. Sorry about that.

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georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
I see this a lot, and there are two ways it can be fixed. "bit stripping" happens below 70% of full output on a digital domain volume control. 

1:This is why thoughtful/concerned source manufacturers like Wadia, Mark Levinson, Bricasti and a few others have "gain settings links" on some of their upper end models in the analogue output stage, to limit the maximum gain. So then the digital volume control upstream can be used at 70% or higher, for any system.

2:If you don't have these analogue gain settings, the next best is to use a passive volume control after the source, and set the volume on the passive so the digital volume on the source can be used above 70% this way you can still use the source remote volume control between 70 and 100%

Cheers George    
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