Are there sound quality benefits in upsampling to 24/192 using the ultra when outputing optically to a DAC?

[Lord Varamyr]

And it so happens that the Ares II I previously owned was one of the DACs I’ve had to do hard reboots on. Same with an SMSL D400 Pro.

-Ed

Yep, it's the Enyo 15th. The rebrand of the Ares II.
Only had it a few weeks, first time it hiccuped on me.

 

[sNc]

Those 16 bits are put in the MSB end of the 24 bit output. You don’t lose info before you’ve turned the volume down 48 dB.

I have Fosi v3 mono (240W) + Heco Aurora 700 (92dB). So I have plenty of power.

Because I use External DAC (DX7 Pro from Topping), the line out level is 2Vrms.

So for quiet listening I must:
- set volume limit to 60%
- set volume level to 30 - 35

Is this 30-35 =-65dB to -70dB? How should I calculate this together with volume limit set to 60%?

Do I have a problem with quality / dynamics when listening on such efficient equipment, so quietly?

And finally, does forcing 32 bits via fixed bitrate improve the situation here?

 

[harkpabst]

So for quiet listening I must:
- set volume limit to 60%
- set volume level to 30 - 35

Is this 30-35 =-65dB to -70dB? How should I calculate this together with volume limit set to 60%?

Do I have a problem with quality / dynamics when listening on such efficient equipment, so quietly?

Did you note the latest measurements taken by @Nanook here?

Post in thread 'Should i use volume limiter, line out level vrms or pre-gain?'

Sunday at 3:16 PM

Spectrum_1kHz_0dBFS_vs_Vout-setting:
Toslink input level: 0dBFS
Output level scales as expected. 8dB down for line output level 800mV compared to 2V and 20dB down for 200mV compared to 2V
Noise floor remains unchanged.

Spectrum_1kHz_-60dBFS_APU60dB_vs_Vout-setting:
Toslink input level: -60dBFS
APU @ 60dB gain instead of Scaler @ 7dB gain.

Spectrum_1kHz_0dBFS_different-settings:
Toslink input level: 0dBFS
No matter in which way I achieve ca. 20dB lower output signal, the noise floor does not change.

--> All of these three "knobs" ("volume limit", "volume" and "line...

• Nanook

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The volume scale is not equivalent to dB numbers, so it's not possible to directly and easily calculate the amount of attenuation, but I don't think it's even necessary. The bottom line of the above measurements is that it doesn't matter much which way you decrease the (digital) output level.

 

[sNc]

Did you note the latest measurements taken by @Nanook here?

Very briefly looking at this at work, I noticed he said "Volume-Limit decreases level by 6dB every 10%"

I have 60%, so 4x6 = -24dB. My listening level is 35 (-65dB). Now If we add it up, we get almost -90dB. It's a lot.

When I look at the graphs he posted, you linked, none of them takes into consideration such a high digital level adjustment like I have on my side.

However, I will go through it after work more deeply. There is a high chance that I missed something or didn't understand what is there

 

[Nanook]

Here's the link to the scaling of volume and volume limit. I may have the volume steps more detailed at home.
The digital signal that I did send via Toslink was a sinewave with 0dBFS

Post in thread 'Does using EQ degrade sound quality in Wiim Pro?'

Sep 29, 2025

The digital output (I used Toslink) behaves identical.
Volume and Volume-Limit indeed scale differently. See attached graphs with 0dBFS Sinewave and +12dB graphic EQ @ 1kHz.

Volume-Limit decreases level by 6dB every 10%


Volume uses different stepsizes:


Volume and Volume-Limit attenuate "on top of each other", so you can just add the attenuation.
I do like this behavior. One of my setups just consists of a WiiM Pro + DAC + active speakers. When I want listen music just in the background the 1% step of the volume still is too loud (assuming 110dB SPL @ FS we still...

• Nanook

• 

 

[Nanook]

I may have the volume steps more detailed at home.

I already posted the attenuation[dB] vs. volume[%] curve here:

Post in thread 'Volume scaling'

Oct 10, 2025

For those interested in the volume control and volume limiting. I did post some measurements on a WiiM Pro Plus with FW 4.8.726839 (DC20250820). I was interested in how the EQ and the DRC interacts with Vol and Vol-limit, so I posted the results here:

Volume-Limit:
For volume limit I got a much different result compared to @dominikz. The steps were exactly 0.6 dB/step (6dB / 10steps) which is quite handy because it allows a broad range of "global volume preset" (when I want lo...

• Nanook

•