Quote Originally Posted by Rothchild View Post
Sorry Marco, yes but I suspect I might have either misunderstood which dac you have? I couldn't see a 'hardware control' (as in an actual physical knob) on the Pidac but the manual (P19 linked previously) shows that there are 3 gain controls available for the hardware in ALSAMixer (how to access and adjust this is described in the manual) one of these (playback) equates to a 'hardware' volume control because it's adjusting the voltage gain of the converter (rather than adding of removing bits):

PCM (which is the playback volume of the software in to the interface) and

'Playback' which appears to adjust the actual voltage gain coming out of the converter (so is useful for gainstaging the input of the next item in the chain)

Given that folk are concerned about 'losing bits' by using digital volume controls the settings I've advocated seek to ensure there is no digital gain or attenuation being applied and to simply use the 'playback' control to adjust the analogue gainstaging so the output of the pi can be appropriately set for the input of the pre/power amp it's connected to.

Hope this helps.
Hi Marc,

I understand a little better where you're coming from now, but wouldn't have a clue how to make any adjustments [what is ALSAMixer?] as they all seem to be software related and beyond my comprehension of computer language. Thanks, though

Marco.