Hello everyone, it’s my first time posting and I am kind of new to audio stuff, so if I say something stupid, bear with me. I have a question about the volume control of my headphone. So, I have a thx 887 going into the goxlr mixer. And there are some sliders on the goxlr for me to control the specific volume, like voice chat and music that I routed to. But I have heard that you are not supposed to control the volume of your headphone by the dac, which is my goxlr. I just want to make sure that I wouldn’t break anything. Thank you and stay safe
Hello Pakeroney, welcome to HFGF. The reason why some people say that you should not change or control the volume from your DAC is because you will lose some information from the digital sound of the source. Usually when you adjust your volume from the DAC, what’s happening is that the DAC does some calculation or computation that will reduce the original value of the information and hence reducing the volume. Many argue that this is not ideal. However, there are some DAC with preamp function, which adjust the volume in an analog way. By doing the volume change in the analog part of the chain, you will only reduce the amplitude of the sound and not taking away the bits of the information. You can read more from this ESS presentation slide show. (kinda old, but really useful).
I personally don’t have any experience with the GoXLR Mixer, but from my quick research, I think they do the volume change in the digital part of the chain. Personally, I think you don’t have to worry about this. I don’t think you will notice that information loss, unless you are in a critical listening session. If you want, just put the volume to the maximum on the GoXLR when you want to do a critical listening session and do everything else as usual. You won’t damage anything. It’s just audiophile people sometimes get mad if they know you listen to an imperfect source.
Edit: Hmm I just realised something wrong with my statement. I think the GoXLR can also make the sound louder. Then, if you want a critical listening session, just put it in the position where it would not make it louder nor quieter.