TEAC UD-501 at 100% output 100% of the time over USB.

[KxDx]

I got a great deal on a TEAC UD-501, and it arrived today (yesterday now that I see the time, ugh). I hooked it up to the PC with coax and optical to test, and all was fine (as a bonus, it is essentially pop-free so it's a keeper ). As per instructions, I installed the Windows driver before connecting USB.

That's when it got weird. When using the USB input, the Windows volume is ignored, the media player volume is ignored, and it is at full tilt 100% of the time! When I played a simple test signal (volume at 2%, not that it mattered) I just about jumped out of my skin. I'm glad I didn't test with music.

Fortunately my amp has gain controls now, so I turned them down to just above 0 gain. In normal circumstances this would be inaudible. In this case music played at a casual listening level. The DAC was balls to the walls. Doesn't matter where I set volume, doesn't matter if I hit mute. I tried 2 different media players and Netflix via Firefox and no difference (but the Netflix volume in-browser control did adjust sound for the video itself). Somehow the USB driver was completely bypassing Windows volume settings. I fiddled with different settings quite a bit, rebooted, but got nowhere. Ultimately I just uninstalled USB and went back to SPDIF. Operates as expected there. I can stick with optical/coax but I still prefer to know where the problem lies with using USB.

Currently on Windows 7 64-bit. Using the latest driver off the website. This DAC was released before Windows 10 so the OS shouldn't be an issue (although nothing's guaranteed). I'm not going to mess with USB again until I've updated to Windows 10 in January, but I'm hoping before then someone with more experience can tell me what I did wrong or missed? Thanks as always.

 

[KxDx]

Wow, this external DAC business (I'm new to all of it) makes me long for the simplicity of sound cards. I found the answer, which is the Teac USB driver sends all calls over ASIO, bypassing Windows volume.

With no preamp, that's a real problem, so I guess I will stick with SPDIF for the time being. I am in no mood to spend additional money right now.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Does the volume control only adjust the headphone level?
It is probably throwing away a large part of the potential SQ to reduce the volume at the computer rather than the device.

 

[Vincent Kars]

As you are using a third party driver, this driver probably disables volume control.
Normally volume control simply works.
Win 10 is UAC2 compliant, the DAC will probably run with native drivers.
You might check the USB settings: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/Win7/USBDAC.htm

 

[KxDx]

Does the volume control only adjust the headphone level?
It is probably throwing away a large part of the potential SQ to reduce the volume at the computer rather than the device.

Yeah it's only for headphones, doesn't affect the RCA output at all. To use USB I'd have to either buy a preamp or control volume with each individual usage (media player, browser, etc). Not only would that be a pain, but the risk of forgetting just once and having a full 2V signal surging into my amp isn't worth it.

Maybe it'll behave differently in Windows 10 but I'm not making that move till December or January.

 

[Willem]

From what I read in the manual the volume control only reduces the volume of the headphone output. This means you cannot really use it as a pre amplifier.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Yeah it's only for headphones, doesn't affect the RCA output at all. To use USB I'd have to either buy a preamp or control volume with each individual usage (media player, browser, etc). Not only would that be a pain, but the risk of forgetting just once and having a full 2V signal surging into my amp isn't worth it.

Maybe it'll behave differently in Windows 10 but I'm not making that move till December or January.

Don't think it is the OS just you mistakenly thinking you can control the external DAC from your computer in the same way you can use software to adjust the volume of its internal sound card. I believe devices sold as external sound cards can be controlled in this way but afaik not DACs

 

[KxDx]

Don't think it is the OS just you mistakenly thinking you can control the external DAC from your computer in the same way you can use software to adjust the volume of its internal sound card. I believe devices sold as external sound cards can be controlled in this way but afaik not DACs

Again, I'm new to all this. Prior to us moving in October to a house with really shit wiring and ground noise issues giving me fits, I only used internal cards. What little I know, I've had to learn in just the past 3 weeks. So ask me a month ago about WASAPI, ASIO, DirectSound, etc and you'd have gotten the deer-in-headlights look. For 2 decades prior all I needed to know about sound from a computer was "put sound card in ISA/PCI/PCIE slot and install drivers."

My first DAC is/was a Cambridge DacMaster 100, and it does work in tandem with the Windows volume control, even with USB (I used with all 3 inputs just see if there was any sonic difference I could pick up). So that's where my expectations were set, even if they were the wrong expectations. I don't remember how the JDS EL DAC behaved because I didn't use it much due to the turn on pops.