Mark Knecht wrote:
2010/6/18 Bearcat M. <hometheater@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
Folks,
My system is set up as follows: computer with Asus Essence ST sound card
out to Trends Audio ta-10.1 amp to anthony gallo acoustics speakers.
In the alsamixer console program i note that the meters turn red as you
get towards the top but i think that's just a pre-set color band and
isn't really telling me anything about clipping or over-driving the
card. More important is the 'dB gain' indicator. Correct?
I seem to hear that when the dB gain is at 0 (volume at 100%) and i've
adjusted my integrated amp to the same (as far as i can tell) volume
that i would have listed to with the alsamixer control at 70 (dB gain
-18.00) that the sound is much fuller with better bass. My mate seems
to hear that as well.
Does this sound right? Could it really be that dB 0 sounds better on
this card in a noticeable way or is it just a psycho acoustic trick? Are
digital volume controls a "bad thing"? I think i've read that before
somewhere so again, i may just be psyching myself out.
Getting up to change the volume is a pain, but i might just invest (or
learn how to make) an outboard volume control if it really is that much
better at dB 0.
Bearcat M. Sandor
The alsamixer colors are, as you suspected, simply preprogrammed and
don't in themselves say anything about how the sound would sound or
whether the card is being overdriven. Whether a given card experiences
clipping or power supply related issues is based on how much headroom
the design has.
In your tests have you accounted for Fletcher-Munson? If not please do
and then re-report your results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher-Munson
If you have accounted for Fletcher-Munson then possibly there's
something in the card design that makes a difference but I suspect
that until you get sound volume levels up to around 80db (measured
with a good db SPL meter) that you may be 'hearing the human ear'...
Just a guess. (NOTE: an 80 db SPL is considerably louder than I
normally listen but I can attest that it does sound noticeably
better.)
Good luck,
Mark
Mark,
I think that may be another matter. I'm not speaking of the dB/spl that
is coming out of the speakers. What i'm doing is adjusting the sound
levels on the left/right channels of my sound card and then adjusting
the volume control on my integrated amp to keep the spl coming out of my
speakers the same (or at least close to it). For instance if i had the
sound card volume at 50% and the amp volume control knob at 50% for 80
dB, then to do the experiment i would put the soudn card volume at 100%
and reduce the amp volume control by 50% to attain the same volume (i
know it would not work that way given a number of factors but it's just
an example). I'm wondering about the adverse effect of using the digital
volume control of the card, rather then just leaving the card at full
volume (0 dB) and adjusting the volume on the amplifier (analog volume
control) instead.
Is it worth it get out of my chair after every other track to re-adjust
the volume manually or is the difference i am hearing just in my head
Thanks for the link. That was interesting.
Bearcat
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