2. amps-preamps
  3. 1315602406

W4S ST-1000, How Loud Should It Play?

Using a W4S DAC-2 as a pre-amp and Dynaudio S1.4 speakers I recently turned up the volume to almost maximum (65 on a scale of 70 on the DAC-2. Granted, the sound was loud but this is a 570W at 8 Ohm amplifier driving 6 Ohm speakers. I would think that my ears should have been bleeding at this level. Am I missing something?
steeveb

Showing 2 responses by daverz

daverz
487 posts
 
Perhaps the DAC has some sort of safety volume limiting feature enabled.

I'm sure the 5V output rating for the DAC-2 is the sum of the balanced legs. I suspect the 2.9V sensitivity for the amp is per leg as well when using the balanced connections. (Kudos to W4S for the sensible sensitivity rating.) Still, I'd expect 2.6V/leg into that amp to drive those speakers way beyond their power handling capability.
daverz
487 posts
 
Here's what I found in a review at 6 moonts:

"When the minimum level for the corresponding input is set to 5, the maximum level will be 65. Basically the min level is the amount of steps skipped in the first position. When used, the min level is subtracted from the 70 possible steps total. With an inefficient system requiring a volume level of 12 to hear anything, a min level of 10 removes steps 1-10 and max equals 60. The volume table offers from 3db to 1dB steps as follows: 0 = mute; steps 1-9 = 3dB; steps 10-24 = 2dB; steps 25-70 = 1dB. In terms of output voltage on RCA when min is set to 0, 62 = 1V, 68 = 2V. For XLR, the 1, 2, 3 and 4V out equivalents are 56, 62, 65 and 68. These will be the values to use in fixed output mode when 70 max at 2.6/5.2V on RCA/XLR is too high for either the following preamp's input stage or a system's overall gain structure."

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred4/dac_2.html
More to discover