I set my computer sound at 100% and adjust in physical volume knob

>i set my computer sound at 100% and adjust in physical volume knob

what's wrong with this

you can always max your amp's physical volume and control the volume on your computer, it's up to you

The physical adjustments made at the speakers is an analogue adjustment, meaning the fidelity is necessarily worse than the digital adjustment you could make within the software of a computer.

It's simple physics, really.

I do this. The less time my hands are off the keyboard the better.

this is literally the way you do it. otherwise it sounds like shit.

>I mute digitally and physically

>not using an external audio device with its own physical volume control knob

>im retarded

I use the digital physical volume knob on my audio interface. suck on that, faggot

Wrong

volume adjust on keyboard

Always keep digital audio levels at 95%

>not manually swapping the resistors on your DIY audio amplifier to adjust the audio

If you are using a external audio device, you'd want to go by what it says; not by what the OS says. Many speakers sound like shit when you do it in reverse. Think about it: if the speaker is 100%, and the computer's volume is say 25%; 75% of that sound is what the speaker is going to have to fill in with something (horrible static). It isn't fucking rocket science, and fuck off with this shitty "insert opinion and proto-normalfag meme here" thread.

Headphone volume at max, and change windows volume. That is the correct way.

define correct

Electronics' engineering student here

Speakers normally work with analog OP Amp circuits or transistored ones. One feature of those is that, are they unbalanced (which is common due to non-theorethical losses), they may reach saturation BEFORE the maximun analog volume they work.

Meaning that if you leave the physical knob at 100% you MAY find distortion (in the form of white noise or poor speaker performance) when adjusting the digital knob.

>has amp volume way up
>nothing playing on computer
>"duhhh why are my speakers making so much white noise????"

or

>has amp volume up
>forgets to turn down os volume
>speakers blow out

...

spooky resolution

it's the other way around, actually
lowering the soft volume lowers your available dynamic range
doesn't matter much if you're using 24bit or higher output, though

>windows
>the correct way.
hahaha

...

I just run my headphones on max at the physical know and at 100 (max) on sound mixer in windows, everything maxed. Can't go wrong.

I really hope this is bait because this is dangerously stupid

>I want to listen to amplified noise from my shitty soundcard.

so what's the correct way then?

os/software at 100%/0db, external volume potentiometer (be it just in-line with headphones, or on an amplifier) for volume control

This. Anybody willing to argue more about this better present some good counterargument to this right here.

i use 80% hardware and then just adjust it with software

What’s wrong with that?

so what you're saying is I can normalize the volume levels by simply cranking digital volume to 10% and cranking up the physical?

Good, nothing is worse than movies where every gun-shot and explosion is 100 decibels and people start talking and it's a muffled inaudible whisper.

High dynamic range is a cheap brute force gimmick to cover up bad audio, bad dialogue and bad music.

I put it at 50 and just adjust my amp to whatever I need.

no, there's a difference between limited dynamic range and dynamic range compression (normalization)
what you describe just raises your noise floor, drowning out quiet sounds in noise
>Good, nothing is worse than movies where every gun-shot and explosion is 100 decibels and people start talking and it's a muffled inaudible whisper.
this is commonly caused by playing surround sound audio on a stereo system without downmixing it properly. voices are primarily on the centre channel, so playing only the front left and right channels means voices will be very quiet

>turning the knob to zero doesn't actually silence the speakers
>have to adjust the volume control on the computer to find the value at which it does

why is this still allowed?

Is there a way to get digital audio from HDMI without the video? I'm thinking of getting AV receiver for my devices but according to people if you connect your PC to the HDMI inputs the PC thinks it as another monitor. I obviously can't use the receiver's pass through because it doesn't have Display port.

You're fucking retarded

Hardware is less prone to failure than software. I don't want my porns to be heard because some cuck dev made bugs in his audio drivers.

you should set your computer to about 70% volume, because thats were most onboard chips have the most acceptable signal/noise ratio, and then adjust with a physical volume knob on your amplfier.

/thread

Sound card volume max and AMP adjust
or
AMP max and sound card volume adjust?

Source? Where can I check how the s/n ratio varies with system volume on my specific sound card?

This is actually a pretty good explanation.
I personally use both.
Physical for increasing the volume when I want it louder than my normal static setting, and soft for nights when I want to lower dynamic range (similar to some amplifiers 'night mode')

Actually, the physical switch is more like to fail.
A potentiometer is the worst.
A rotary encoder in better
Software is best.

For reliability only, dyanmic range will be affected software AND digital systems with rotary encoders - at least you CAN fix it with exotic software.

Because you are using some garbage speakers.

I just keep it at 50% then ajust anything I need in the DAC

keep in mind limiting your dynamic range like this is not related to dynamic range compression/normalization
the way the latter works is that the volume is adjusted automatically, making quiet parts louder, and loud parts quieter. this is good for small speakers with limited response, or in noisy environments like in a car or while it's raining

That's still the same as night mode on most Amplifiers (kenwood at least) it dampens the DR, so that even if you have it up louder, the limited DR will soften what people in adjacent properties will hear.

>use direct drive headphones
>sw volume 100%

i'd imagine a "night mode" is employing DRC, i'm just saying that soft vs. hard volume is not at all related
the difference in volume between soft and loud parts doesn't change when you limit the dynamic range through using soft volume, the only thing that changes is the noise floor
try setting your soft volume really low, say 1%, then turn up your amp to make up for it
unless you're using a very high quality DAC at 24bit or higher, you'll notice an increase in background noise, this is because you've severely restricted the available dynamic range, but the difference between loud and quiet sounds won't change

all those audiofiles in this thread

-- also, the quality of your analog cables and EMI become a bigger issue as well
this is because what's really happening is that you're lowering the voltage difference between quiet and loud, so now much smaller interferences become problematic
while with 100% soft volume, you're using the full voltage range of the analog lines, so it's far less sensitive to interference

i use the digital out and dont have software volume controllers enabled.

>unless you're using a very high quality DAC at 24bit or higher, you'll notice an increase in background noise, this is because you've severely restricted the available dynamic range, but the difference between loud and quiet sounds won't change
That's fairly disingenuous since even without an input an amp can do the same.
In any case, i use a 96/32 (odd, yes - but the amp supports it and it's more divisible by 64 than 24, which since hardware audio doesn't exist on my 'anymore' 32bit is better... - 3x24bit is 72bit, so it can't be processed as fast and 2x 24bit might as well go 24bit padded to 32bit...)
I'm not some goldenears type - it's just the easiest for quickly and least cycles processing 44.1 and 48khz nicely and 32bits is because it's all going to be padded to 32bit anyway and x86 doesn't do 16bit precision, so the processing time and memory requirements for 16/24/32bit are the same on x86.

there's a difference between being sensible and being autistic
if you can't hear any noise while using soft volume, then you're fine. that's all that matters

Holy fuck that's some severe autism right there.

you have a shitty system then if it blows up. more likely you would not hear properly for few minutes.

>That's fairly disingenuous since even without an input an amp can do the same.
yes, like i said, analog interference becomes a bigger issue, even with nothing attached to an amp, there will be some amount of interference being picked up by the DAC
basically, increasing the volume increases the sensitivity of the DAC

I don't think 3M of 12AWG for 45W 8ohm speakers will be a problem.
Nor 2m of 7AWG cable for the 80w subwoofer at 4ohm.
It's all real copper too, none of this copper coated steel shit recently going around.

>i don't transfer the sound directly to the DAC without mixing
brainlet.png

there's no need to guess if it's enough, test it.
if you can't hear the noise difference between using soft and hard volume up to the actual maximum volume level you use, then use either, it doesn't matter
all i'm saying is that there /is/ a difference between both methods, not necessarily that it's always /noticeably/ worse

s/dac/amp/
i should say, i'm talking about the analog components, not a digital one

I'm turning both up to 50% and I can't notice a difference in either.
I'm using headphones at moment though - so it's a different amp and it's past time to use speakers (fines, police and shit)
I don't want to go higher than 50% on headphones as they're DT860's and can't handle more than ~130mw.

that's a fine reason to use soft volume, if the output being used can't handle full line level voltage range

Speakers can go 100%/100% (although it's harmful for ears, and I leave the subwoofer off, so anything below 78hz isn't presented either, so it's not '100%' full range to the 2 way speakers.

>not using VLC at 200%

wtf. i set both to 0% and use my pathetic dick to adjust the volume.

But the bottom right is the exact same as top left. Obviously if you leave volume at 100% and amplify it to 200% it'll be twice as loud. But if your goal is 100% final volume, and you start with 100% digital (top scenario) and then pass through the amplifier unchanged, how will the result be different from the bottom scenario of 50% * 200%?

Other user, but I have the same complaint whenever I go to the cinema
It's not a crapsack country cinema with 1-2 screens and a shitty sound system either, it's a normal large-city cinema with presumably normal cinema-grade equipment

the volume is the same, but the waveform is not
remember, the resolution of the "vertical axis" of the waveform is the bitdepth of audio, while the resolution of the "horizontal axis" is the sampling frequency
lowering the soft volume means you're using less of the vertical space, or less bits of dynamic range
for example, say the range is 16bit, if you only use half of that available space, then your signal becomes only 15bit (each bit doubles the resolution)

also, to avoid confusion, the two right hand pictures were not intended to display the same actual volume, it was only a demonstration of the under-utilization of available dynamic range
just pretend the bottom right image is 400% amplified if you want the final volume to be equivalent, the point still works the same

ps. you might be thinking that you can make up for the reduction in sample depth utilization by using a larger bitdepth, that is say, convert from 16bit to 24bit, then reduce that, which gives you a lot of headroom for soft volume reduction without cutting into the 16bit range, and that's true, but that only remains true until you reach the analog output of your DAC, at which point that reduction of range translates into a reduced voltage range. throwing bits at a digital problem is easy, but maintaining a weak analog signal is not quite so cheap, you'd require higher quality dacs, cables, and shielding to do the same job as if you used the full voltage range

>lets see what Sup Forums is up to today
>thread of arguing about the proper way of turning volume up or down

There was no argument, just OP being a complete retard brainlet and people schooling him. I have no idea why this thread is still up.

>maxing your amp
Enjoy ur distortion

you can't with your computer

you may lurk that info on the manufacturers' site and add some tolerance, though.

You wouldn't downscale a photo to 15x15 pixels and then magnify it and print it out on photo paper, why would you do that for audio.

theres something wrong with your ears if you dont hear that distortion.

Sometimes I use both, I don't really hear a difference unless it's some extreme setting

Literally nothing wrong with this

>headphone cables aren't shielded
enjoy your EMI

>Windows
Retard.

that's how Dangerous Audio makes their monitor controllers, as your turn your output knob you hear clicks from the box

this

>not physically severing your auditory nerves when you don't want to hear things

I keep my OS at 50% and then make any adjustments in the programs or gaymes I need, headphones always set to 100% with the little control dongle on the cable. Seems to work great and no noticable sound issues.

t. deaf and dumb person

Well the idea behind it is correct but you should never put it over 75%.

I play music at 500% speed for improved productivity.

t. first semester EE student

This is the whole point of adjusting the volume kid

>The speakers can differentiate between post and pre amp signal
Ok kid

>Everyone on this thread is feeding at an obvious bait
The state of current year Sup Forums.

That's the most autistic thing I read all year.
Since the year has almost ended I'm just going to go ahead and crown you King Autist 2017. Congratulations!

Still a better topic than iPhone X or vidya cards
This is replying to pure bait tho

The opposite is true generally. You have it backwards

>not keeping digital maxed and then adjusting on headphone's/speaker's respective amps

>have Windows 10 sound at 4%
>have physical speaker slider at max
>Windows 10 randomly maxes sound to 100% after update
>fucking 350dB trance music when I want to listen to music in the middle of the night

>change to 100% windows 10 volume instead
>speaker volume at lowest
>Windows 10 installs GPU driver without my consent that also reinstalls HDMI audio driver so that all my deactivated computer monitor speakers gets enabled again
>100% windows 10 volume and 100% monitor volume
>8000dB youtube sound now

Fuck DisplayPort and HDMI to hell with their built-in audio capabilities. Are there any cables that removes audio function??

>rotational velocidensity

might as well block out the sun and any living thing