Hey guys, I’m new here and can’t find quite the answer to a question I’ve had. If im using a dongle dac, such as the Moondrop Echo B, will turning the volume down decrease the quality of the signal? Will turning down volume on an android act the same way as turning down the volume in an OS like windows? Or does the dac bypass this problem? I’m using Quboz through USB Audio Pro, just FYI.
Thanks for any helpful information
If the dac has its own volume control then setting the device (phone, computer) volume to maximum and using the dac to control volume will be best.
If the dac has no volume control then your only choice is to use the device volume control.
Most people would put this in the category of splitting hairs so it’s not really anything to worry about.
Nope, common misconception. Some delta-sigma DACs have abnormally rising distortion as you get close to max digital volume at their inputs.
Both analog and digital components are best kept at least a few steps back from their max. volume if your focus is signal quality preservation.
Wrt. the original question, as this same article argues, as long as everything is competently designed (digital device noise floor always below the analog device noise floor), there’s nothing audible that you would lose by working only with the digital volume control to turn things quieter.
Keep in mind that the DAC/amp having “its own volume” doesn’t automatically mean it’s implemented in the analog section, it could still be working in the digital domain. You need detailed specs to know for sure. With something like a DSP-capable Moondrop Echo B, I wouldn’t be surprised to see its volume control (if it has an independent one) working on the digital side. But as discussed, there would be nothing wrong with that signal-quality-wise for most of its range below the last few steps at the top.
Digital volume is roughly the same everywhere, with some differences in how the quantization noise is kept under control through dithering and noise shaping. There have been many versions of Windows and there are many versions of Android, and implementations in both have evolved, but AFAIK any recent version of Windows should be fine, while with Android you should be careful that your audio doesn’t get resampled by the OS inbuilt resampler after it comes out of your player app and before it reaches the DAC. Since you have UAPP, make sure it’s always working in exclusive mode and talking directly to the DAC, and your digital volume control should work perfectly fine.
Hmm, this is the first time I’ve heard this. And while I truly appreciate you posting a reference to back up your claim, there are some gaps in the article’s explanation in my opinion. For example the animated chart is fairly convincing, but how do we know this isn’t the result of using a badly designed sigma delta DAC to prove a point? In theory, at least, a DAC should not be expecting the incoming digital signal to be attenuated in order to perform optimally. At least not a desktop DAC. I could see a dongle DAC needing to make compromises, one of which could be expecting the phone’s volume control to be used.
I’d really appreciate someone with far more knowledge of DACs, like @GoldenSound, to weigh in on this.
It also doesn’t seem worth the tradeoff since max-value samples will be rare.
You wind up with processing artifacts 100% of the time to prevent an occasional millisecond of max value distortion (if it exists at all).
So basically best case scenario is a dac with its own volume control? Even though it’s splitting hairs, there’s no way to avoid signal degradation if the source volume isn’t maxed out and allowing the dac to filter the volume?