Yes, I’ve searched this on google and seen some things on reddit. However I am asking this in these forums because we are all typically of the same brand of loving audio. So my question:
When you listen to your music/movies/games how do you adjust your volume? I ask because I’ve always been one to first crank up my windows volume to 100. Then pretty much adjust from there. I’ve since really gotten into audio and now have an amp/dac to add to it all and pretty much use HP all the time now. Bye bye desktop speaker listening!
So, windows at 100% and now I listen to my Amazon HD to stream. I have my amp set to a gain level that is pleasing to me but when listening to music I find myself adjusting the Amazon HD software volume up and down depending on the track playing. Some are just old and so quiet, others are not. I do this with games…I do this with youtube, I do this with movies.
Should I really just be keeping my software to 100 on no matter what I am playing and just adjusting my AMP volume only to get the best of the source? Or does it even matter anymore?? I’ve also read bitrate doesn’t really lose out like the old myths used to say.
The more I read the more confused I get lol. So time to ask all of you…how do you listen? I know there is no way possible to just keep the volume at 1 level no matter what because so many sources are mixed so differently and some pleasing…some are not. I find myself constantly playing with software volume on the player…but then sometimes also adjusting my amp. The only thing I never touch is my windows volume as I feel that is the base that needs to be maxed.
No,
There are recordings, especially older ones, where you almost have to turn up the volume.
Especially the ones from the 80,70,60 ths.
Listen to a James Brown recording and you will hear the difference.
Yes, the volume with Windows is always a thing.
Especially with class D amplifiers that have a low current consumption, it tends to clipping more than with a class A amplifier if you have set the volume in Windows to 100.
Class A amplifiers are very insensitive to this, but it is also possible.
With Class D amplifiers, I usually had the volume in Windows at 60-70, rather less, in order to have reserves.
With Class A 90-100, more at 90 because of the reserve.
So it would be good to reduce the volume a little via Windows and when adjusting the headphone amplifier.
This is the best way to avoid clipping.
The other thing is the apps in Windows from stream providers.
Usability okay, but sound output really really bad compared to Audirvana and Roon.
Works quite well on tablets but the apps are very poor on the PC.
The disadvantage is that Audirvana only offers 3 stream providers with which you link your account and buy it once, and Roon doesn’t have all the stream providers either and costs extra monthly on top.
Audirvana is free to try, I would recommend trying it together with Tidal.
The playlists can be transferred with Tidal.
Definitely makes a lot of difference.
When you change the volume digitally like the volume of windows or in the player you’re actually changing the file, based on the bit depth of the original file and the bit depth in the setting of the dac(how many free bits there are) you can reduce partially the volume and don’t loose quality in the process, still is always better max out the digital volume and even disable it when possible so you’re sure that you’re sending the file directily to the dac without any modifications (exept decoding like flac to pcm) if the best quality is the object. Of course exept if you reduce extremely the volume is really difficult notice any changes in quality.
I guess my only dilemna is that typically when I am gaming I will have discord open for voice and sometimes music going as well. So having all of that at 100 would be impossible for controlling the level just through my amp. I think I just answered my own comment on that though because if I’m doing all those things I won’t care as much on quality of sound
However when just relaxing and wanting to listen that is when this stuff would matter the most I assume. Especially immersive gaming and immersive music listening.
Definitely agree with the comment above about music from earlier generations…crazy when I’m playing my playlist and I go from a newish song to an old one. Its like going from talking normal to a whisper.
Well I don’t listen to hi-res stuff, but what I do is keep my volume at 70-80% and then adjust with whatever is easiest. Reason I don’t Max out the volume on the pc is because the amp can act weird when it’s turned down too low, causing stuff like channel imbalance.
For whatever reason I’ve found that the windows tidal player sounds drastically better when the volume in the player itself is at the first 3 notches above zero. Bass thins out and overall dynamic range seems to go to shit at full volume. Can someone explain to me why that would be?
Could be that you have volume normalization enabled? I can’t remember if that was the exact name for it, but it should be on by default in Tidal. Throws me off every time and really fucks with my audio and ears whenever it adjusts between tracks. It also overrides your volume output to a certain extent.
I’ve since disabled it and always run Tidal at max, only controlling my volume level via the dac and amp.
no i have that off. i have no idea why its like this but its only tidal. for some reason its really noticeable too. the first 3 notches are all fine and it thins out with each notch after the 3rd.
I recently subbed to Amazon Music Unlimited HD instead of just the Unlimited. Mostly because I’m a prime member already and I really enjoy how much music is available. What I am finding is I am constantly adjusting volume depending on what is playing because as we said in this thread earlier - some older music is just not as loud.
Today I turned on normalization as I had it disabled. Do any of you also do that or am I basically making it worthless now that I subbed to HD version? I know HD doesn’t necessarily mean “louder” but I don’t want to hurt that bitrate either so I can take full advantage.
This should be interesting to see responses but I’d like to know what others do as I know pretty much all streaming services offer some sort of normalization option.
The normalizzation on the streming platform just add an other level of digital volume that is automatically set by the player based on the loudness of the record. If you want to maximize the quality the best things to do are disable any normalizzation, disable the volume of the player if possible and give the exclusive permission to the app to access the dac. In this way you avoid any trasformations to the file, but since you said before that you need the windows mixer because you want to play at the same time differents sources actually every time you’re playing something windows is resampling it. With the HD you get a file with a better quality so is always better that the compressed one even if normalized or resampled.
This is a good topic. I have been doing quite a bit of research and experimentation with volume control. It can be a challenge when there are volume knobs everywhere!
What seems to be giving me the best result so far is setting the Windows volume to about 70-75ish percent. Like someone else said, I don’t really like maxing anything out. Then I do this dance between the SU-8 DAC and the DA-8S amp. There just seems to be this sweet spot where you get the input from the DAC at just the right level in relation to the amp. This is all by ear, and it can take some time. then, once I have things were I want them I use the remote of the DAC to control things volume wise.
I know many people are worried about max out things but actually the DACs and the amps give the best performance in terms of measurement when maxed out. The “best” option since you like to set the volume of the DAC via remote is max out windows and the amp and set on the amp the minimum required gain. Of course still pretty impossible in many cases notice any difference 'cause our ears are much less precise then our gears.
The easiest way is to work with a device that has your clipping indicator.
It shows when clipping really occurs and you can hear it.
Ideally, it is not the volume of the dac or amplifier that needs to be reduced, but that of Windows.
Which is actually logical.
Because Windows processes the signal with the PC and forwards it.
The Dac still tries to normalise it, but then it is also overstrained.
Ideally, it is very good if you can work with a clipping indicator, which saves a lot of trouble. Sometimes these overloads are minimal that they disturb you mainly in the highs and upper mids. You often have the feeling with something like this that the headphones could possibly be broken or the tube is nearing the end.
I also think that the XLR signal copes better with this than the Rca signal.
Unfortunately, this is not available as a component that can be connected between USB ports, but mainly to a good equalizer.
But that’s another topic because a lot depends on where you start moving the sliders. If I start in the middle the tendency for clipping is even greater, so the overall volume on the pc has to be lowered significantly.
I would say that if you don’t have something like this, where the clipping is indicated. On the PC, lower the overall volume from 100% to 75% and listen again. It should then be better. Depending on the dac or amplifier or dac/amp, you have to lower it by another 5-10% or you can add to it. As a rule, you should lower it by another 5%.
Then the resolution is usually better and cleaner.
At the amplifier, it doesn’t matter later whether the potentiometer is set to 12 or 14 or 15 o’clock.
In principle you reduce the sine curve at the input signal for a clean flow which then later comes across cleanly at the output. A very simple thing actually.
The poti where you operate it really doesn’t matter.
I also had to get this out of my head a bit, which sometimes takes a little time.
Most of the causes are often simply due to “incorrect” operation by the operator.
But that’s not a bad thing, you learn it and once you understand it, it stays in your head.
Fantastic explanation. I do not believe I have had any clipping as of yet, but this gives me reason at least to try and lower windows below 100% without believing it will hurt quality.
My dac/amp is a Modi3/Magni Heresy stack and I believe is an A/B class amp. I’ve read up a little on it and I technically shouldn’t have any issues…but also wouldn’t hurt to try and lower on windows.
Before the DAC the audio signal doesn’t exist and the DAC doesn’t clip except if really bad designed but is something really impossible to see (analog clipping). What can clip in the conversion process is the digital signal that for semplify is like when you don’t have anymore space where write the informations but this appens only when you are in the production process (digital clipping), all mastered audio tracks do not clip and if they do are really badly mastered, personally I’ve never heard a track clipped.
