DAC/Pre's Digital attenuation vs. analog

Edorr - what kind of digital volume control do you use?

Is it a slider in itunes or Pure Music etc? Do you do any gain control in the DAC?

The devil is in the details.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I use a PC with JRiver 17 (tried to get the JPlay plugin to work - no joy). From what I gather, playing in any WASAPI / ASIO mode the slider does not work.

I control volume digitally in the Trinnov 4 channel processor

http://www.trinnov.com/products/pro-audio/st2-pro/?lang=en_us

This processor sits before my PS audio DAC. I run the dac at 100. I am actually thinking of recalibrating my system, running the PS audio at 80, and doing less digital attenuation in the Trinnov.

By the way, does your DAC have remote volume control? I may decide to give it a whirl, but no remote control would be a dealbreaker.

Edorr...

I agree, you may get a slightly better results throwing an expensive tube preamp in the mix, but why? Why add that expense, another power cord and IC - why add the additional box?

The volume control on the DAC-2 is good enough for anyone EXCEPT a tech engineer who likes to read books and specs instead of actually sitting down and listening to music.

I am so tired of seeing all this tech talk about what will sound better... what... on paper it looks like it will sound better? How do you know it will sound better to person A, person B or person C, D, E, F..... ? Answer: YOU DON'T. Talk all the tech you want about volume control on DACs... I prefer to try it and determine MYSELF what sounds better.

Lots of technical talk (again), but my two cents.... buy the W4S DAC-2 (I owned one), it is a really nice piece for the money.

STOP WORRYING ABOUT ALL THIS DATA and SPECS and tech. discussions about digital volume!!!

And when I sold my DAC-2, I sold it for about $1,200. Not bad spending $1,500 for it, using it for a year or so, then getting back $1,200.

i have the ps audio separates (pwt and pwd).

the pwd has a digital volume control.

i prefer the sound using the digital vol control at 61 percent of max and using more gain on the preamp.

i think the digital volume control is inferior to the analog vol control on my passive and tibe preamps.