How volume and gain affects sound quality?

[Miguelón]

Hi everybody!

Turning my 3 possible volume parameters up and down by ear I arrived to the best combination I could found (without measuring, sorry). I don’t understand well the impact of that as the final sound pressure at my listening point was the same.

I can control the digital volume on the computer, the master volume on my DAC (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) and finally the imput gain on my active monitors (Genelec 8030 cpm).

I found most pleasant and less distortion and noise (again by ear) when gain imput is at the minimum, volume knob of the DAC at its maximum and I only vary the volume on the computer or the streamer digitally.

Can anyone explain me that? Has something to do with maximum signal and minimum amplifying ratio give less SINAD?

 

[Sokel]

The Signal Chain: How do noise and distortion propagate through my system?

This article is to explore how noise and distortion change through our system, and how different components can influence the final output. A common question is “If I have DAC A, preamp B, and amp C, where should I set the volume and gain controls for the best performance?” Usually this...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DVDdoug]

My advice is, don't TRY to hear differences/defects unless your choosing which speaker to buy, etc. And if you have to "try hard" to hear a difference, buy whatever is cheaper.

Otherwise, just enjoy the music!

less distortion

You shouldn't normally hear distortion unless you are Clipping. That usually happens if you overdrive an amplifier.

Normally, you'll only get digital clipping (including the DAC) if you boost with digital EQ. For that reason, most software EQs have a "preamp. which is used for attenuation rather than attenuation so you can boost the lows or highs, etc., and then lower the overall level to prevent clipping.

and noise

Noise is hum, hiss, or whine in the background. It's most noticeable with silence or quiet parts of the program. If you aren't hearing noise, everything is cool!

The general rule is to keep a "hot" signal through the signal chain for the best signal-to-noise ratio, and attenuate (or adjust the volume) at last opportunity. That way any noise before the adjustment point gets attenuated along with the signal. Typically noise coming from the power amp's circuits can't be turned-down. I would guess the amplifiers in your Genelec's don't generate any audible noise.

For everyday volume control convenience is also a factor.

NOTE - When you attenuate digitally you aren't using all of the bits and you are losing resolution. It's not the best way to adjust "system gain" but it's OK for everyday volume control. IMO - People worry about this too much... You also lose resolution during quiet passages or during a fade-out. If you are playing a CD (16-bits) and the music fades to -48dB, you are down to 8-bits. If you play an 8-bit file at full volume you can hear quantization noise and it sounds pretty-bad. But faded-down to 48dB you can't hear any loss of resolution (quantization noise) unless you re-amplify it. ...Analog attenuation isn't perfect either, and you may hear a loss of quality if you attenuate and then re-amplify analog.

 

[Miguelón]

My advice is, don't TRY to hear differences/defects unless your choosing which speaker to buy, etc. And if you have to "try hard" to hear a difference, buy whatever is cheaper.

Otherwise, just enjoy the music!


You shouldn't normally hear distortion unless you are Clipping. That usually happens if you overdrive an amplifier.

Normally, you'll only get digital clipping (including the DAC) if you boost with digital EQ. For that reason, most software EQs have a "preamp. which is used for attenuation rather than attenuation so you can boost the lows or highs, etc., and then lower the overall level to prevent clipping.


Noise is hum, hiss, or whine in the background. It's most noticeable with silence or quiet parts of the program. If you aren't hearing noise, everything is cool!

The general rule is to keep a "hot" signal through the signal chain for the best signal-to-noise ratio, and attenuate (or adjust the volume) at last opportunity. That way any noise before the adjustment point gets attenuated along with the signal. Typically noise coming from the power amp's circuits can't be turned-down. I would guess the amplifiers in your Genelec's don't generate any audible noise.

For everyday volume control convenience is also a factor.

NOTE - When you attenuate digitally you aren't using all of the bits and you are losing resolution. It's not the best way to adjust "system gain" but it's OK for everyday volume control. IMO - People worry about this too much... You also lose resolution during quiet passages or during a fade-out. If you are playing a CD (16-bits) and the music fades to -48dB, you are down to 8-bits. If you play an 8-bit file at full volume you can hear quantization noise and it sounds pretty-bad. But faded-down to 48dB you can't hear any loss of resolution (quantization noise) unless you re-amplify it. ...Analog attenuation isn't perfect either, and you may hear a loss of quality if you attenuate and then re-amplify analog.

Thanks for all the information, I wasn’t really worry about my speakers. Just trying to understand changes in sound color when moving up and down input gain- volume knob.

Because is free, nothing happens if I search some preferences: I have the impression that my monitors sound better the lowest the gain.

I don’t mean better as a universal “better”, just different in a way I prefer lowing its gain to the minimum . I suppose this give more signal and less amplification, whereas if I go to the other extreme with highest gain and lower volume at the DAC then the signal will be lower and the amplification gets a higher factor.

I will read more on the signal chain, this surprised me as I supposed the amplification ratio should not give any difference below clipping.

 

[Miguelón]

The Signal Chain: How do noise and distortion propagate through my system?

This article is to explore how noise and distortion change through our system, and how different components can influence the final output. A common question is “If I have DAC A, preamp B, and amp C, where should I set the volume and gain controls for the best performance?” Usually this...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Really interesting, just what I wanted to learn! Is super long, I will read completely tomorrow but I lacked that information on my new hobby and this is perfect

 

[Miguelón]

My advice is, don't TRY to hear differences/defects unless your choosing which speaker to buy, etc. And if you have to "try hard" to hear a difference, buy whatever is cheaper.

Otherwise, just enjoy the music!


You shouldn't normally hear distortion unless you are Clipping. That usually happens if you overdrive an amplifier.

Normally, you'll only get digital clipping (including the DAC) if you boost with digital EQ. For that reason, most software EQs have a "preamp. which is used for attenuation rather than attenuation so you can boost the lows or highs, etc., and then lower the overall level to prevent clipping.


Noise is hum, hiss, or whine in the background. It's most noticeable with silence or quiet parts of the program. If you aren't hearing noise, everything is cool!

The general rule is to keep a "hot" signal through the signal chain for the best signal-to-noise ratio, and attenuate (or adjust the volume) at last opportunity. That way any noise before the adjustment point gets attenuated along with the signal. Typically noise coming from the power amp's circuits can't be turned-down. I would guess the amplifiers in your Genelec's don't generate any audible noise.

For everyday volume control convenience is also a factor.

NOTE - When you attenuate digitally you aren't using all of the bits and you are losing resolution. It's not the best way to adjust "system gain" but it's OK for everyday volume control. IMO - People worry about this too much... You also lose resolution during quiet passages or during a fade-out. If you are playing a CD (16-bits) and the music fades to -48dB, you are down to 8-bits. If you play an 8-bit file at full volume you can hear quantization noise and it sounds pretty-bad. But faded-down to 48dB you can't hear any loss of resolution (quantization noise) unless you re-amplify it. ...Analog attenuation isn't perfect either, and you may hear a loss of quality if you attenuate and then re-amplify analog.

I don’t understand totally what you’re telling, after reading the article of the signal chain.

Harmonic distortion increases with DAC volume (I suppose digital volume, a DAC hasn’t other control) whereas SNR decreases. Also clipping can happens at its maximum depending on the recording levels: so I keep digital volume at its 50%.

Preamp, which in my audio interface is integrated as an attenuator with a volume knob, is the less prone to introduce SINAD to the change so I rase it to 85-90% (as advised also in the Genelec website about adjusting gain).

Finally after calculating the power needed to my listening level I sat input gain of the monitor’s amp at 0dB (letting headroom to increase my preamp to its +4 dBu * 0.9) in order to rise average volume if recording is too low. In my first setup I decreased input gain to the minimum and the preamp at its 40%, keeping the digital volume at maximum because I wrongly thought it would increase fidelity

My first adjustment was wrong, as it had no headroom and was clipping a lot, also offering so much harmonic distortion specially in highs.

I lacked of practice on detailed calculations but the setup sound quite better, I didn’t notice any issue when keeping digital volume at its 50-60%.

I think it worths adjusting this kind of things first, people only worry about room interaction issues but without changing any EQ adjustments (-2 dB bass tilt with dip switches) I improved a lot the music