B - if you think 40 is good, you should hear EIGHTY! ; )
(approximately half-kidding here)
“Be great if Ted…could pitch in.”
Trying to remember what/which threads to refer you to, but Ted has gone into considerable detail on this in one discussion or another*. It was his input that got a lot of us started on this whole Thing (see Scumbag’s Original Post at the top).
Part of my problem was getting my head around the Volume Control on the DS DACs not being the same as volume controls I’d used my whole life prior. Or, for that matter, that a DAC HAD an effing volume control. Why would you Not Run it at nominal/full output (2V or whathaveyou) like every other DAC or CD player that came before?**
The answer (in a system with a pre, at any rate) is, both the Ability to turn it down, and Less Sonic Penalty in turning it down - and much More Happy Gain To Be Gained by turning up a good pre like the BHK. (Assuming neither needs to be turned up or down TOO far.)
- Warning: As my brother so aptly and humorously put it (with a grin), “How long does it take you when reading one of Ted’s posts before you don’t have Any Idea What He’s Talking About? 10 seconds?” Apologies, Ted ; )
** I know, not the first DAC with a volume control. I’ve had/heard others.
The thing that complicates any general advice is that the DS’s noise floor is constant no matter what the volume is set to. It’s the interaction of that noise floor with the rest of your system, speakers, room and ears that helps determine the best mix of volume settings.
I’d start with the DS between 80 and 84, turn the preamp to a comfortable listening level, keep both remotes conveniently near by and let your subconscious take over. You’ll probably settle down at a good volume setting for each and a favorite remote.
In my system, with my BHK, small changes in final volume make noticeable changes in sound quality.
The difficulty I have is assuring that I have the same final volume as I vary dac vs BHK levels.
I’m going to Out Myself here as someone with a Pre that makes this whole Equation way easier to sort out for me than for those of you with BHK Pre’s. I’m not ashamed ; )
Lots of Tubes, lots of distortion (good and bad). Though the choice of tubes make a huge difference in both. There’s a reason a diagonal Groove was milled into the faceplate of the TL 2.5:
That is a Pretty Good Indication of it’s Happy Place, generally speaking, tube rolling largely aside. That’s Nominal Gain for this device, above which the distortion rapidly/audibly gets greater, and below which it is reduced, but going too far down can rob it of that “je ne sais quois” we’ve discussed on other Forums here recently. So this Known Range can be exploited dependent on source, taste and music style/recording quality.
For a Zep (insert Loud Music of Choice here) LP, for example, I may have this Tailored to Noon or So, bearing in mind, of course, that the Source is Feeding/Driving the Pre, which in this case is an analog source. Gain Staging. That same “album” via any given digital source is another equation entirely.
(Nota Bene: While this is a great optional (3)AX-7 phono stage in this thing, and continues to serve me well, I am Totally Buying the Stellar Phono Pre when it comes out next month. Not an Ad, Just Sayin’. Alpha tested it. No Brainer. Fully Analog device with no tubes, but you wouldn’t know it except for the Very Low distortion. Musical.)
But this is comparing analog into analog to Digital, which leaves the DAC (though not the Pre) out of it.
Put on some Jazz hires, either by SACD/DMP or Auralic, and I’ll likely vary the DSJ “20-something-ish” depending on source*, from 70’s into the 90’s, which will put the Pre’s volume control around the Groove.
This is of course leaving out a measure of Volume in the Room at the Time. Not insignificant, but ultimately not Important At the Time (best volume level for every song in your room aside). This is supposed to be Fun, right?
So a lot of the time, I’m simply raising or lowering the DSJ so I can turn the Pre to its Happy Place, which is Why I Suggest Finding your Pre’s Happy Place, give or take an O’Clock (or whatever that translates to on a remote/scale of 0-100).
This is not to say in any way that you should then Never Touch your Pre’s volume control. Nothing set in stone here. Mix and Match. Cook.
That Happy Area, which is sort of graphically obvious and relatively narrow on my Pre, is potentially much broader on the BHK, as the noise and distortion is so much lower than on a device like this. In a given system, the comparable range could be 50-100 or 40-80 or 50-70 or whathaveyou.
*“Source” includes from one CD/digital file to another, one Format to another, on one digital device to another, etc.
I want to note that the above may give the impression I adjust the volume with the DAC. I actually just make gross adjustments between sources with the DAC volume and then do the usual volume adjustments with the Pre.
Does anyone know what happens when the BHK Pre crosses from 84 to 85? It seems there’s a jump in line noise there. The interference from the Pre display is also noticeably more audible as well.