------------------------------------------------------------------------ A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=55246 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question: Direct to power amp? - Yes - No ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I begin let me clarify what I am talking about. The issue is not using passive attenuation in situations where 100% on Transporter volume control is significantly higher than your actual expected listening volume. *If your maximum actual listening level is 100% on Transporter's volume control then your gains are correct*. Pneumonic;363307 Wrote: > Sean, I'm perhaps late to the party on this one but I am disappointed to > hear that some people have encountered not so nice "noise" issues when > using the TP as a digital volume control plugged direct into a power > amp. > Nobody is complaining about noise, but they do seem to want to know how to get the best performance from their system. > Judging by the results of this poll a significant % of respondents in > this audiophile forum are going against your advice and running their > SD units direct as a digital volume control. Presumably because they > prefer the way it sounds. As an aside, I know in my just concluded > testing, I thought the results of going direct was awesome and > something that I'd like to further explore. If you like the sound of it that way fine, but Pablolie misstated my position on this issue as "not officially recommended" when in fact it is explicity disadvised. > > But, if doing so places my speakers and/or ears, at risk I won't > continue obviously. That's unfortunate though because of missed > opportunity to utilize something that is there (or should be there?) > for using. As you know us audiophile's are typically serious tinkers > who'll do whatever necessary to try out different things and > combinations of gear as they look for just that right, or even just a > different, concoction. We get to miss out on this one. The biggest risk is that you or someone else in the household might change the volume level using the web interface. We go to great lengths to ensure that there are no hardware or software bugs in our system that could cause excessive levels, but I will not claim that there is zero possibility of that. > I know that other applications of digital volume control by other audio > companies don't have such problems so technically something must be > amiss with SD's implementation, no? The difference is that I am being honest with you. Anyone who tells you that you can safely, without degrading sound quality, substitute a digital volume control for electrical level matching between equipment is simply lying to you. Yes, I am well aware that certain manufacturers make these claims, and I'm not mincing words here. > At any rate, the potential "noise" issue is obviously an undesirable > situation for those who do run direct and I wonder what, if anything, > is being done to address it on current and/or future units? You misunderstand. Transporter has the lowest noise floor of practically any DAC you can buy. It is absurdly low - it's output when playing silence is indistinguishable to most equipment from a dead short. If we are to believe that this high performance is one of the reasons that people purchase Transporter, why wouldn't they want to preserve that level of performance by correctly setting the gains of the downstream components? ALL electronic devices have noise. A bare piece of copper wire, sitting in free space, has electrical noise across it. If anyone tells you their DAC or amplifier has _zero_ noise, they are lying to you. I am simply telling you how to minimize noise in your system to get the best possible performance. If you're with me on noise, then we can proceed to discuss dynamic range... -- seanadams ------------------------------------------------------------------------ seanadams's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=55246 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
