Analog volume control ?

[Barry_Sound]

Hey everyone, one technical question. When a manufacturer states "analog volume control design using (…) resistance ladder circuit similar to switch-resistor network" what does it mean? Is it a digital control still that mimics an analog control? I know the device has a turning knob that will spin infinitely. To me this is a digital control, right?

 

[staticV3]

Hey everyone, one technical question. When a manufacturer states "analog volume control design using (…) resistance ladder circuit similar to switch-resistor network" what does it mean? Is it a digital control still that mimics an analog control? I know the device has a turning knob that will spin infinitely. To me this is a digital control, right?

It's analog attenuation, controlled digitally.

 

[Chazz6]

The analog control puts decreasing resistance in an analog signal path as you turn up the volume control. "Digital" may be ambiguous; one meaning is that while the stream is still encoded as a sequence of bits - for example, when read off a CD or when received as an Internet stream - the coded volume is increased as the volume control is turned.

 

[popej]

Is it a digital control still that mimics an analog control?

By digital volume control we usually mean volume control operating on digitized sound data. With resistance ladder, sound is processed in analog domain, so it is analog volume control.

Ladder is giving discrete values of volume, which can be called digital values too.
If ladder control is done by microcontroller, then you can say, that this feature is controlled digitally.

 

[steve59]

I searched for this topic because there's members including me asking if using the volume knob on affordable dac's to a power amp is preferrable to using the fixed output of the dac to a pre amp? Are all volume pots created equal?

 

[staticV3]

I searched for this topic because there's members including me asking if using the volume knob on affordable dac's to a power amp is preferrable to using the fixed output of the dac to a pre amp? Are all volume pots created equal?

The volume knobs on most affordable DACs actually do not use pots.
They use rotary encoders, which control the digital volume attenuation feature that's built into the DAC chip.

The advantage over traditional preamps is perfect channel balance at all volumes.

The disadvantage is that noise stays the same no matter the volume, and being digital, there is a small chance of a bug leading to a sudden jump in volume.
I've read about that happening on exactly one DAC so far (Topping E70), so it's not something you have to worry about usually.

 

[steve59]

The volume knobs on most affordable DACs actually do not use pots.
They use rotary encoders, which control the digital volume attenuation feature that's built into the DAC chip.

The advantage over traditional preamps is perfect channel balance at all volumes.

The disadvantage is that noise stays the same no matter the volume, and being digital, there is a small chance of a bug leading to a sudden jump in volume.
I've read about that happening on exactly one DAC so far (Topping E70), so it's not something you have to worry about usually.

I had an Anthem 225 I that would on occasion start turning the volume to max! Thank you for explaining.