I was going through my Roon Settings last night and found it had changed from fixed to variable volume.
Not sure which update caused this. I thought it was a set it once and forget it function, but apparently not. I went back and fixed it and an immediate and substantial perceived sound quality improvement.
Not sure if it was volume change or something in Roon software for causing variable sound selection to sound duller. But fixed volume has brought a bunch of magic to the soundstage, along with clarity. Not sure how long I had been in variable sound mode.
I am interested to know if anyone else ever noticed this phenomenon regarding Roon volume?
Anyhow urge others to check or see if they get same improvement. One would think digital volume control would not degrade sound and analog gain would compensate. I adjust volume for my room by the amp watt meters. So same watt output for peaks doesn’t exceed ability of room acoustics That being said fixed volume in Roon sounds way better than variable sound enabled at same volume matching through amp.
Yes it sure can affect what you hear. I just wonder when it happened now. I wam am guessing it happened awhile ago perhaps during the Beta test push.
It sounds almost as good as a new cable turning off the volume processor. I am recallbrating my ears on configuration. I guess I know why my HT processor movie sound and streaming was so close in performance.
I set all my sources to “device volumel” as opposed to “fixed volume”, so that I can control the volume through the device that is rendering the music.
Not clear why it matters. I like adjusting the volume from my phone or iPad. When I care about lossless, I just run it to 100 in the Roon app and use my pre to adjust volume. Best of both worlds I figure…am I missing an advantage of fixed volume?
