How to tell if a DAC/AMP allows for upstream volume control?

[PalsyWinner]

Hey everyone,

I've done some searching to find out how to determine if a DAC or amp supports upstream volume control, but I haven't found much information. It seems like many of them rely on a physical knob for volume adjustment, which isn't ideal for me.
Are there any specific terms I should be looking for?

If it helps, I'm specifically looking for a DAC/amp combo (could be integrated together or separate) that fits within a $300 budget and allows for volume control pass-through from my Mac. I've had limited exposure to tube amps, but my experiences have been quite positive, so I'm leaning towards that type for the amp.

 

[DVDdoug]

Your Mac's volume control should work, or the player application usually has a volume control. I'm not a Mac user but there is an an "exclusive mode" which is "bit perfect" so the Mac's volume control won't work but the application's volume control should still work. (There may be some streaming amps that don't have a volume control with so exclusive mode.)

The Mac's DAC ("soundcard") is probably better than human hearing so you may not need a separate DAC. (I have lots of stuff with DACs but no stand-alone DAC.)

I've had limited exposure to tube amps, but my experiences have been quite positive,

In the 60s and 70s, I had a radio with tubes and our TV had tubes.

Tubes are outdated. There is no advantage, they are energy inefficient, and expensive, especially if power amps which need an output transformer to drive 4 or 8-Ohm speakers.

An amplifier's job is simply to amplify and most solid state amps do a very good job. It's more expensive to make an equally-good tube amp.

 

[staticV3]

Hi @PalsyWinner! Welcome to ASR.

The feature your looking for is called UAC2 Hardware Volume control.

If your DAC has it, then you can control volume using the standard macOS volume control.

If not, then Mac systemwide volume will be locked to 100% and you'll get this icon whenever you try to change it:

Sadly, this feature is rarely if ever advertised.

Just because UAC2 Hardware Volume support is not mentioned on the product page/User manual, does not mean that the DAC doesn't have it.

So the only choice is to research each DAC individually and check with other owners and Mac users.

 

[PalsyWinner]

Thank you all for your suggestions and insights! I really appreciate the help.

Just to clarify, my audio is currently coming from an OWC Thunderbolt Dock, which has its own DAC chip, a CM6533N. Supposedly, it has a 93dB SNR, and can handle sample rates from 44.1KHz to 96KHz with bit lengths of 16 or 24 bits. From what I've gathered, it seems that around 91dB is the threshold for a decent DAC, so perhaps that is sufficient?

Also, thanks for the tip about looking for UAC2 Hardware Volume Control; I’ll definitely keep an eye out for that.