DAC's with volume control question

quick check in for those who might be interested. am 24 hours into my Cambridge 851N ownership. gotta say i'm definitely not thrilled but will give it chance to burn in a little an see what happens.

first off the volume control is OK at best. no where near as precise as i had hoped for. my PWDII was/is much better at volume adjustment/precision. especially at low volumes.

sound wise....it's a 7/10. not bad but certainly not as organic/smooth sounding as the 10 year old PWDII it replaced. exceptable for now but not hifi imho (probably shouldn't be hifi at this price point but i was hoping). the old saying you get what you paid for and the effort you put into it seems to be true at this point. couple days of research and $1500 is what i have invested. mediocre/ok sound is what i have now. 

have had differing experiences with "burn in" in numerous components over the years. sometimes i notice a big difference. other times near nothing/no improvement. lets just say i'm hoping "burn in" smooths out some of the rough edges here. if not??....i think i can make this work for a year or so.....but definitely not a long term keeper.

on the big plus side, the features and setup are fantastic and easy to use (again, coming from something 10 years old here). spent a few minutes setting it up and it's done. Cambridge app is kinda weak but still very user friendly and very quick/seemless. love having all the music access this box provides. radio and tidal hifi is very enjoyable even with average midfi sound

oh well....at least i have some music playing again.

Every dac up to my current one (Lumin X1) that had volume capability seemed to reduce detail (reduced bits).

ozzy

Every dac up to my current one (Lumin X1) that had volume capability seemed to reduce detail (reduced bits).

You turn them down too much. < 75% of full up = "Bit Strippping"

In that case, use a $49 Schiit Sys after the dac, to set the level, so then you can then use the dac’s remote volume control at >75% and over
Cheers George

George,
Probably a poor choice of words on my part. I meant to imply that the Lumin X1 volume control is unique and does not loose digital bits in its operation as the other dacs I have used. The volume is controlled by a process called LEEDH. With this unit I have been able to eliminate the preamp.

ozzy

I have always been a firm believer in leaving the digital volume at full. Recently I purchased a blue sound node 2i and started getting a popping noise randomly on digital coax or optical connection to my Jolida tube dac. The forums are full of threads for this issue and one of them mentioned attenuating the digital output as a fix. Sure enough, changing the automatic level control from off mode to smart mode reduced the problem by 90%. I then lowered the master output by 5 clicks and the popping noise is gone. Planning to meter the coax later to see what the difference is between the two settings.