Hi,
So I've been wondering about this.
I currently have a Furutech ADL Gt40 DAC which has a volume control since the DAC is a headphone amp as well. Since there is an analog volume control in line with the signal, it probably degrades the performance?
Recently though I see a lot of DACS, (eg. NuPrime DAC-9, NAD D1050) etc. come with volume controls, it thus adds "pre-amp" functionality to the DAC, and makes it possible to use the DAC as a headphone amp but at the expense of audio quality.
My understanding is that by using a digital volume control, you can set the volume to 100% and in essence it is then as if the DAC is acting without a volume control, since no bits are "lost". But if the DAC is not set to 100% volume, audio quality could be degraded?
Is my understanding correct, or would it always be better to get a DAC without any volume control if you are only going to it as a DAC and not headphone amp/pre-amp?
So I've been wondering about this.
I currently have a Furutech ADL Gt40 DAC which has a volume control since the DAC is a headphone amp as well. Since there is an analog volume control in line with the signal, it probably degrades the performance?
Recently though I see a lot of DACS, (eg. NuPrime DAC-9, NAD D1050) etc. come with volume controls, it thus adds "pre-amp" functionality to the DAC, and makes it possible to use the DAC as a headphone amp but at the expense of audio quality.
My understanding is that by using a digital volume control, you can set the volume to 100% and in essence it is then as if the DAC is acting without a volume control, since no bits are "lost". But if the DAC is not set to 100% volume, audio quality could be degraded?
Is my understanding correct, or would it always be better to get a DAC without any volume control if you are only going to it as a DAC and not headphone amp/pre-amp?
