No, Australia.
And the icing on the cake is the remote that allows us to adjust the level of the DSD and the BHK Pre on the fly without moving from the chair…of course once fixed level is turned off on the DSD.
Interesting! Yet more things to try, as if I don’t have enough already :^ /
I feel that optimizing the preamp volume control in the BHK puts the Tubes in their sweet spot for audio quality. This I’m sure will be different for whatever tubes we have in the circuit, along with the sensitivity of the speakers. Accurately trimming the volume of the DSD DAC for output does not degrade the signal IMO.
For my application being above 52 on the BHK pre dramatically increases perceived depth, bass quality and overall dynamics. 60 seems to be my sweet spot so far and my DSD varies from 65 to 85 depending on recording.
@RsZk - been listening to my streaming w/ pre at 70 and adjusting DSD and it is amazing. Also, I noticed my sweetspot yesterday morning was off in my music room and something was wrong… so I stepped back and saw my area rug was back by a foot. It had moved a foot in weeks with no pad. Weird how you don’t notice it till you are going hey, this doesn’t sound right. So I went out SAT and got a pad and installed it. Man getting the sweetspot back was great. Now today I changed my DSD and PRE volume approach and it is magic… loving it. I also like the DSD gain change. It seems like the gain slope is less and I can get smaller changes in volume set up this way… love it… Also hated the PRE used to set volume… those two blips bothered me… and I thought the DSD set up at 100 never liked from the start.
Ok, this whole thread sent me down the rabbit-hole… with volume at 100 on the DSD, I have to keep my Conrad Johnson preamp at 30-32 out of 100.
Anyway, I messed with both lowering the volume and hitting the Filter button on the remote to kick in the extra resistor to drop the volume.
Either approach results in a warmer, more natural sound on my rig, possibly with a little loss of microdetail. I have to say though, I’ve personally found that the Filter button does less damage to the soundstage/detail than lowering the volume to 60 or so, which is roughly the same drop in volume. Might be worth an extended listen with the Filter button engaged and comparing that to the digital volume control…
I have been doing the same with my Auralic Vega G2…going between 65-80, and increasing the volume on my BHK. More testing to do…but I do find better dynamics and an increased depth in the soundstage. Good stuff!
As I reduce the output of the DS I notice the characteristics of the tubes I’m running in the BHK preamp.
If they are a bit heavy/warm/thick on the low end, it gets thicker with the increased dominance of the signal.
I do also experience a bit more full soundstage but dialing back the DS and upping the pre.
Love these ‘free’ tuning strategies 
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@brett66 - yeah that was a Ted starter and Mark and Scumbag (I hate using that word) follow up. Man I just fell in love with my BHKPreamp and DSD all over… Great team work on that one…
Bonus: love using the DSD as the final volume control; gain slope or volume sensitivity is less and I like that a lot… plus, not two blips heard… from Pre…
Mine is at 100. Is that good? My screen no longer works but I only use remote and do not want to be without it. Since it is the second time it broke I am sure it happens again anyways. Not worth repairing since I use remote, screen off. Under warranty. Maybe if I sell it but I will trade for TSS anyhow.
Being at 100 is fine. It’s just another adjustment you can make to see if you prefer or can tell any difference turning the DAC down and the preamp up or turning the preamp way up and using the DAC for the master volume control.If you like what you have there is no need to change anything.
Actually I played with it for a long time. I settled on “86” as the best sound. So in effect he was correct! You cannot second guess MR. Smith!
I was at 100 until I read the secret truth. Now I am at 89 and I wonder if I can tell the difference. Perhaps.
80 on my Vega G2…and love it. Increasing the volume on the BHK definite improvement.
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A couple of things:
Gain staging is not a secret : ). It is a basic tenet in recording. You want to hear more of the character of a mic pre, you crank it. You want less/cleaner? Back it off and raise a subsequent gain stage.
If 89 is so subtle that you’re not sure, turn it WAY down and the Pre up until you hear it - makes it easier to decide if it is for you/works in your system - and where the Pre’s sweet spot is for you.
Don’t feel you have to find some single, “magic setting” and never touch it again, unless that’s what you want. It’s really not brain surgery. Twist the knobs (both of them). I find my digital sources vary both overall between units and from album to album.
The point is that there is both more analog goodness to be gained with the pre up into its Happy Place, and less loss to be had with turning down the DSD volume control (vs. traditional volume controls) than there is with making assumptions in absence of experimentation.
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I had to put it back to 100. I did not have enough gain. Volume on preamp was 3/4 and not loud. That can introduce noise AFAIK.
I’ve been running my DSD on 65 since I got my BHK pre. I set mine based on the dBs when my pre was lowered to 1. With the DSD above 65, volume at 1 on BHK was too loud. I want the volume to be minimal at 1 on the BHK pre.
Gain staging from an audio engineering perspective is about preserving signal integrity and minimizing noise and unnecessary amplification down the signal chain. In the studio you almost never want a low level early in the chain and lots of gain farther down. You would never set the preamp low just to boost the gain (and noise) later with the mixer fader or a compressor. Technically, what you are talking about is bad gain staging, even it sounds better because it hits the tube/mosfet preamp sweet spot.
I’ve found my own BHK Pre sounds best at 84 (which is nominal +2db to make up for low DS output), but the power amp I’m using currently has its own passive attenuator which is set fairly low. With this setup, DS volume at 100 sounds clearer and more defined than 80 or 90 and is closer to “ideal” gain staging, but when my BHK 250 arrives next week I’m going have to grapple with the DAC/preamp tradeoff.
I’m generally advocating turning the DAC down and the preamp up.
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Not one to follow the rules, the first hour of my BHK Pre install was consumed with this very search for balance sweetness… lol. Also running a pair of Linn Sekrits in the ceiling off BHK’s RCA’s simultaneously passing the signal thru another Pre, so I can balance the volume of two sets of speakers separately giving me a dramatic soundstage. So much was made of the BHK Pre ticks, using the DSD for Volume control is a no brainer as it effortlessly surfs up and down the db’s. Ultimately this seems to be about having options, and control… two of my favorite things… Bascom knows a thing or two about human nature…