> If I have volume set at full on the SB3 will the sound quality degrade. > I'm not an audiophile - but I think we've all noticed that when you > crank the volume on source devices that use plain 'ol RCA jacks that > you can sometimes get some distortion in the signal. Not sure if that > same principal holds for optical/digital or not.
The principal does *not* hold. In fact, to the contrary, you will get the *best* sound quality from a digital connection like this when the source is at full volume. This is because with a digital signal there is a discrete amount of dynamic resolution, and when you lower the volume you also lower the amount of resolution. So quiet passages can be lost entirely, and other elements can lose fidelity. The reason analog audio can sound bad when driven into inputs at high levels is because the voltages supplied can literally overload the preamps and cause clipping. This is not an issue with digital audio as the digital signal voltages do not change based upon the volume level of the digital signal (just ones and zeros). The analog preamp stages in a digital processor come after the digital decoding is done and any DAC will be matched to its accompanying preamp and calibrated in such a way as to not overdrive the preamp stage. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
