I hope this is the right category for this–it was the best I could find anyway, since it’s pretty related to amps.
I’m a bit confused by gain settings and what they actually do.
Maybe it’s best to begin this way:
Started getting better audio stuff last year–got some 58x Jubilees, 1More Triple Driver Over Ears, Tin P1s, BLON BL-03s, Koss KDE250s… And then to power them from my computer I got a Fiio K1.
I found that they all got loud enough on low gain, so I used it at low gain for a long time. Then on a whim, I flipped to high gain and turned the volume down, and they pretty much all sound much better on high gain (except maybe the Tins and the BLONs). I also got a Fiio A3 for my phone and noticed the same thin–much better low end and clearer high end.
So really, here’s the question: Why is the sound different at high gain than at low gain, even when the volume is the same? I assumed volume was just changing the amount of power that goes to the drivers, and gain was changing the way the power was delivered…but if that was the case, I would expect the sound to be the same at low gain on volume 8 as it would be on high gain at volume 5 (numbers are made up).
Is it my imagination, or am I just missing something?
I would guess that high gain is introducing noise and the noise sounds good to you. Much as with tube amps.
I am sure some of the more technical members can explain it much better.
You may be getting better power headroom when on high gain. That could explain why it sounds better. Whether a particular amp sounds sounds better on high or low gain is dependent on its individual design.
But yeah, a well designed amp generally shouldn’t sound different between gain settings.
I love my tube amp and my hybrid amp. I find that my THX SS amp sounds “harsher” with certain headphones and certain music and it supposedly measures crystal clear.
I think it all falls under “We all hear differently”.
amplifiers implement gain switches in different ways, short of it just sticking a resistor in series with the Pot, which I doubt any amp actually does, the switch very likely will make an audible difference. In some amps more than others.
My rudimentary uderstanding…Gain is essentially the amplitude of the signal before the amp does anything to it to make it louder. So, inherently, increasing gain changes the tone of the signal by introducing distortion. By lowering the volume on a higher gain setting, you can reduce some of that distortion and end up with a fuller tone at a similar output decibel loudness.
So, relating to a fire/garden hose…gain would be the amount of water flowing into the hose, and the amp is the nozzle at the end of the hose. Leaving the nozzle alone, more water will naturally come out when more water is being pushed into the hose, but the shape and intensity of the stream coming out of the nozzle also changes.
The way I’ve always thought of it, which means I’m most likely wrong :D, is that turning up the volume pot adds more distortion at the benefit of louder sound. If you can use high gain and are starting with a higher level coming in, you don’t need as much distortion added by the volume pot. If the high gain switch is a multiple of less distortion than the volume pot would add, use it. If you have a very clean pot, use the lowest gain possible.
At the end of the day we’re all sensitive to different sounds and just test with whatever you feel sounds best personally haha.
No it’s really not like that, until you drive an amp to clip which on most amps suggested here with most headphones would be deafening, there is not an appreciable increase in Noise.
Just to be clear here Gain is just output Voltage over input voltage or current, or power, the question though seems to be around gain switches.
Gain switches isn’t usually implemented by “turning down the volume”, in some amps it bypasses some of the amplification stages, in other it adjusts the amount of feedback in an amplification stage, in others it changes the amplification (gain) of a particular stage in the amplifier.
The Schiit Amps for example AFAIK usually increase the negative feedback in low gain mode, and IMO tend to sound better on High Gain, because generally though more feedback = lower impedance and better signal to Noise ratio, it also detrimentally impacts the actual sound.
Gain just refers to the difference of a circuits input to its output voltage
As with anything, there are many sensible ways to implement variable gain:
Switched attenuation in the feedback circuit of the input-stage. The lower the resistance, the lower the gain.
Warning: In an Op-Amp based circuit, you want to add resistors in parallel. NEVER have the feedback circuit be open, not even for a split second!
Switched input attenuation. By adding resistance to the input, the gain is lowered.
Adding (removing) input amplification.
Using a potentiometer in series with the feedback resistor (careful! Potentiometers sometimes make bad contact)
