Using Low Gain -12dB effect sound quality?

[isp]

Hi. I am using the the Drop SMSL HO150X Headphone amp which has 3 gain settings -12dB 0dB and +12dB. I am feeding the amp at 2V from my dac via RCA. I am mainly using HD600 series of headphones. I find that on gain setting 0dB so no gain I am only able to use the volume control around 9 oclock and would like to have more controll and usage of the voume control so decreasing the gain setting absolutley alows me to do that wich also decreases the risk of channel imbalance. I am asking because I am aware a lot of amps have 0dB gain and then higher gain levels and it is generally recommended to use the lowest gain possible in which is required to achieve my desired listening levels and good usage of the volume control, but I cant seem to find the effect of negative gain -dB on the sound quality. I don't have anyway to do a proper a/b comparison which is level matched or a blind test which obviously would be the ideal solution. But from what I am hearing when using low gain -12dB mode and listening at a similar listening level to using 0dB gain I am finding the music to just be generally slightly less clear and energetic and less full and rich sounding. Is this common that people really do perceive a sound difference between gain modes at similar listening volumes or is this all just going on in my head and the scientific likelihood of it changing the sound quality other than making it quieter is extremely unlikely.

I have seen Amir did a review of the SMSL HO200 wich is a similar amp and both Low gain -10dB ( in the SMSL HO200 case ) and Normal 0dB both had very good measurments but he didnt talk about the effect on the sound. I have a sense that the lower gain mode is decreasing the energy in the music. I am aware generally the negative gain -12dB is generally used/marketed for IEM's and lower sensitive headphones but I find that it is also good for a lot of my headphones volume wise and the HD600 series is not particularly Low sensitivity. I don't use IEM's.

I would like to use the low gain mode so I have greater control using the volume pot and I can listen at quite volumes more easily but I dont want to sacrfice on the sound of the audio just volume.

Any insight into this would be much apreatiated.

Thanks

 

[DVDdoug]

but I cant seem to find the effect of negative gain -dB on the sound quality.

Good!!!

The general idea of "gain staging" is to keep the strongest signal through the chain (without pushing something into distortion) for the best signal-to-noise ratio and attenuate the signal and noise together at the last possible opportunity. But if you aren't hearing noise (hum, hiss or whine in the background) everything is fine.

Convenience is also a consideration. If you have a remote control you probably want to use it.

I find that on gain setting 0dB so no gain I am only able to use the volume control around 9 oclock and would like to have more controll and usage of the voume control so decreasing the gain setting absolutley alows me to do that wich also decreases the risk of channel imbalance.

That's worth considering too, and at lower gain you are less likely to accidently blast your ears or blast and blow your speakers.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Side note:

I am mainly using HD600 series of headphones. I find that on gain setting 0dB so no gain I am only able to use the volume control around 9 oclock

I reckon you are not using any kind of playback volume normalization (ReplayGain etc.). I bet this situation would look a fair bit different with my kind of settings, RG with preamp as low as -7.9 dB in my headphone setup (also with HD600s), i.e. an effective -25.9 LUFS target level. This is even covering my worst-case classical recordings, but since I can afford it, who cares. With uncorrelated white noise disappearing around +20 dB SPL, it's not like you need a ton of dynamic range for headphone playback. The ~1 Vrms onboard audio I'm running into an Atom Amp+ - almost always at low gain (0 dB) - is capable of about 99 dB(A), and that's more than adequate given that I don't need peak levels exceeding the low 90s dB SPL, and most people maybe the low 100s.