Normally, I use the coax output (SPDIF) from the Bluenode to my DAC. Unfortunately, that’s not possible right now — the Coax output on my Bluenode crapped out this week. But you’ve given me an idea – I have a new DAC with a USB input, so I could use the USB output from the Bluenode to the DAC, and compare that with the optical output. I’ll let you know how it goes; thanks!
Why would the digital optical output from my CD player be louder than that of my streamer?
Showing 3 responses by cheeg
Not so fast, @hilde45 -- The CD player is sending a digital signal to my DAC/Pre on Optical, and another digital signal to the same DAC/Pre on Coax; for both the volume is the same, but fairly loud. Now I switch the cables to the Optical and Coax outputs on the Bluesound; again the sound levels are the same, but much less loud. How could higher voltage on the CD player account for that? |
Interesting possibilities -- I especially liked #3, which made me think of a setting in the BluOS app that I hadn't played with before. Under the app's Settings, if you go to the Audio tab they have a setting for Volume Limits (dB), that is set by default to a min of -80 and a max of -10. I pushed it up the max limit to 0 dB, and voila, it's louder -- but now it's louder than the CD player! I have heard that Bluesound controls the volume by changing the number of bits per sample (if I'm wrong, hopefully someone on this forum will let me know), but I would expect that to affect the quality of the signal, not the volume. Can someone set me straight? |