What is the best way to set volumes on both headphone amp and dac?

[shinewu]

I always fix my amp's volume at slightly over mid or ~60%. And then I adjust my dac's volume to reach my comfortable listening levels.

I think amps in general operate the best around that slightly-over-mid range with the best FR and power. I also know that many folks suggest we should set the dac's volume to 100% to achieve bit-perfection. But slightly-over-mid on my amp and 100% on my dac is just too loud. I am using Singxer SA-1 + SMSL m500.

What do you guys do in this case?

 

[BelgianJoey]

I’d go with the “many folks“ advise: Larger (non-clipping!) signals earlier in the chain will result in the best final sound quality.

 

[voodooless]

Setting the DACs volume as high as possible will give you the highest SNR. You’ll just need to make sure your amps input isn’t clipping. So check the input sensitivity of your amp.

What volume level your amp is set to, shouldn’t matter very much. The “mid setting sounds best” is probably a myth unless the amps design is broken or the input stage is clipping from a too large signal from the DAC. Possibly that is what you hear? It should be quite obvious. In a normal case, I would not expect any audible differences.

 

[shinewu]

But if I set my DAC SMSL m500 to 100% volume, I can only set my amp Singxer SA-1 to maybe 10-20% for many headphones. I know my hearing is more sensitive than usual.

In terms of subjective quality, I do not perceive difference between the (max dac + low amp) and (mid dac + mid amp). But sometimes max dac leaves really small range on the amp.

 

[voodooless]

Okay, so your problem is a more practical one. I’d say: use the most practical solution for you.

Also: have you played with the gain switches on the bottom of your amp? Try the low gain setting.

 

[Jimbob54]

But if I set my DAC SMSL m500 to 100% volume, I can only set my amp Singxer SA-1 to maybe 10-20% for many headphones. I know my hearing is more sensitive than usual.

In terms of subjective quality, I do not perceive difference between the (max dac + low amp) and (mid dac + mid amp). But sometimes max dac leaves really small range on the amp.

Then you have 2 choices to get more wiggle room on your amp volume:

1. Reduce DAC volume
2. Reduce volume in your player app

Id adjust the volume wherever it is easier to adjust from your listening position. I sit on a sofa 8 ft away from my PC /DAC/AMP so the remote on the DAC is the easiest thing to adjust volume during a listening session.

 

[Berwhale]

In terms of subjective quality, I do not perceive difference between the (max dac + low amp) and (mid dac + mid amp).

Yes, it's highly unlikely that you would be able to tell the difference unless your amp has an analogue volume with poor channel matching at low settings (The Alps pot in my JDS Labs Atom suffered a little from this, but it was only an issue for IEMs).

Personally, this question highlights another benefit of a combined DAC/Amp like my Topping EX5, I have only one volume control to worry about and it remembers the settings for headphones and pre-amp independently

 

[Human Bass]

100% dac, then adjust the amp.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

From an engineering points of view, the best result in terms of DAC performance and signal to noise will be with source/DAC at 100%.

There's no engineering reason to think an amplifier is best at 60%. It's totally dependent on input level, overload margins, the "law" of the volume control and gain of the amplifier. One setup may be optimum at 10% and another at 90%