New DAC! Meitner MA3, Denafrips Terminator Plus, Holo May KTE, Mola Mola Tambaqui

@fastfreight 

I got my Tambaqui a few weeks ago.

I'm using with a Pass Labs INT 60

with 6V output I did, like you, get clipping on a few songs.

I ended up just going with 2V

From Mola Mola support:

There is dB’s and dBu’s. dB’s is relative to something, dBu’s is relative to an output voltage (0dBu is 0,775V). The volume control of the Tambaqui in dB’s is relative to the actual output voltage. So if you have set it to 6V, the volume in dB’s is relative to +18dBu. So 0dB volume is 18dBu.

If you have set it to 2V, 0dB is relative to 8dBu because 8dBu is the same as around 2V output.

This scale is logarithmic, so dependent on how much you would like to reduce it, is how much volume you need to lower it.

So for example if you want to output max 1V which is the same as 2dBu, you need to lower the volume by 16dB, if set to 6V. If set to 2V, you need to lower the volume by 6dB to output max 1V.

Hello @phishhhhh4 ,  Good info but confusing me a bit.  You (Mola Mola) are saying there is no difference as long as you turn the volume down using 6v or up using 2v?  This is not what I found to be true.  At the 6v output, on some recordings, there is distortion.  I will call it this as opposed to clipping as I might be technically wrong.  This distortion always starts at the bottom of any eight step cycle on my Audionet Preamp ( Pre G2) and probably my Stern.  As you turn the volume up, the distortion increases  along any 8 step portion of the volume.  As you increase volume, the distortion increases along that given 8 step increase. At the ninth step, the distortion lowers and then climbs again (louder as the volume is louder) during  that 8 step ladder.  So just turning the volume down to match 2v output volume does not eliminate the distortion.

Using Volume Offset does.  I do not know if this effectively turns the output down to 5v or 4v or not, but it sounds better than just using 2v and turning it up

I was hoping you could explain response from Mola Mola as it's over my head. I do, take from it, that changing Volume offset does lower the output voltage