Use that to set a master volume level so that your regular volume control’s usable range is maximised. If your power amplifier or speakers have a volume or input trim control, that will work great. Since it doesn’t amplify the signal, its gain ranges from 0 to 1, which gives you a much larger usable range. Since an amplifier’s job is to, as the name suggests, amplify, this means that the volume control’s gain ranges from 0 to more than 1 (often much more), and by the time you’ve turned the volume control to the halfway point, you’re probably no longer attenuating, but actually amplifying the signal beyond the levels you set in software. This can be a problem when the volume control is part of an amplifier, which is probably the case with most computer setups. So if I want to set software volume control to max, how do I deal with my analog controls suddenly having a super tiny usable range? (Because even turning the analog volume to half is way too loud.) you’re not pairing a cheap low-end amplifier with a high-end digital source and DAC), that should give the best audio a good question in the comments: Assuming all the devices in your signal path are of more or less comparable quality (i.e. Ideally, you should output audio from your computer at full volume, so as to get the highest resolution (bit depth) possible, and then have an analogue volume control as one of the last things in front of the speakers. If it’s digital, then the effect is much the same as reducing the volume in software, so there’s probably little to no difference in which one you use, in terms of audio quality. The result of reducing the volume in hardware depends on how the volume control is implemented. This PDF has more information and some excellent illustrations if you’re interested in learning more. Different programs might use slightly different algorithms for attenuating the signal and resolving those rounding errors, which means there might be some difference in the resulting audible signal between, say, an audio player and the OS, but that doesn’t change the fact that in all cases you’re still reducing bit depth and essentially wasting a portion of the bandwidth on transmitting zeroes instead of useful information. Again, this mostly happens at lower volume levels. This further degrades the audio quality by introducing what’s basically quantisation noise. Turn the volume down too much and quality will start to suffer noticeably.Īnother issue is that these calculations will often result in rounding errors, due to the original value of the sample not being a multiple of the factor by which you’re dividing the samples. If you started with, say, 16-bit audio (standard for audio CDs) and reduced the volume by 12 dB, you’d effectively be listening to 14-bit audio instead. Specifically, every 6 dB of attenuation is equivalent to reducing the bit depth by one. Attenuating a signal is done by multiplying each sample by a number less than one, with the result being that you’re no longer using the full resolution to describe the audio, resulting in reduced dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio. In digital audio, the signal is split up into distinct samples (taken thousands of times per second), and bit depth is the number of bits that are used to describe each sample. Reducing volume in software is basically equivalent to reducing the bit depth. What matters is whether you’re adjusting volume in software or in hardware. SuperUser contributor Indrek jumps in with a definitive answer to the question: Let’s get to the bottom of things: is it better to crank up the volume at the speaker or within your computer’s settings? The Answer By turning the volume up on the amplifier or speakers that are attached to your computer, and thus changing the volume on the hardware?ĭoes programs vs.By raising the volume at the operating system level (for instance, by clicking the speaker icon in the Windows notification area and turning the volume up)?.By making the music louder in my music player, game or other sound-producing software program?.If music isn’t loud enough, how do I get the best quality (even if the difference is in fact so small it’s negligible)? SuperUser reader Qqwy poses the following question:
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