Do volume controls affect sound?

How important to sound quality is a volume control?

[robinwilliams]

I have to laugh Paul. When I first saw the title of this video the smart Alek in me stood right up. Lol. But I watched the video knowing exactly what you were referring to. It seems as though a few watchers made comments before actually viewing this informative video first. Thank you for producing these informative and entertaining videos Paul and keep up the good work at PS Audio and I hope one day to be able to have a high quality audio system from your excellent company. R.W.

[djhmax]

One of the things i respect about allnic audio is they make their own attenuators which are great!

[SuperMcgenius]

Yes, in my old diy passive preamp, I tried three different types, top line alps, Noble and stepped resistor based. I could easily hear the difference between the three and stepped resistor, based on sounded best. I am not familiar with this chip-based approach, so I have no opinion, well I think Paul will be using them because they sounded best.

[naturalverities]

A corollary question is whether volume level affects sound quality, and of course Fletcher-Munson confirm this. But I also have found that for any given recording there is a playback level that sounds most open and dynamic and natural, and my guess is that this is very close to the level at which it was mastered. When I find myself dissatisfied with a recording, my first reaction is to adjust the volume, and it is often improved dramatically.

[ericnortan]

Before even watching I know this answer... Yes, they make it louder or quieter.

[patrickgrantham]

The attenuator (I'll call it that rather than a volume control) is possibly the most overlooked part of an audio setup. You get really good quality capacitors, resistors etc., then pass the signal through a basic carbon track and some sort of metallic wiper. Everything goes via the attenuator, so it makes total sense to use one that has as little effect a possible on the signal. Trouble is, this can get really expensive. It's a tough call for manufacturers, but having heard the difference it can make, it's worth the cost and effort, Practically it's very hard to implement in a existing system.... It needs to be a design criteria / decision... back to the drawing board folks!🤔

[JJ-noob]

My current preamp has a stepped attenuator and in-spite (or because of ) the clickity click noise when turning the volume up, it works very well.

[alwyn]

Thanks Paul for answering my question, it's really clarify the matters. Although I still very itchy to mods my current VTL preamp with Khozmo ladder stepped attenuator from std alps motorized blue velvet pot and see how far will it improves the overall sound. But I agree on yiur point that any attenuation should be on neutral where it will not colours the sound too much so the circuit design goal can be achieved

[Justwantahover]

Would speakers sound any different with volume? Besides volume. 😅 A siigle driver speaker would have a hard time with the upper treble level when turned down really low. Mine seem to.

[NotSure]

Why do you have Elac Debut 2.0 speakers in your office?

[randomtube]

What causes display volume not to go up or down smoothly? Like it jumps around, fights with itself, does the opposite or doesn't work at all?

[Master_zzz]

Yes, because audio is a complex waveform entering an audio path after the volume control that is not 100% lineair. So the output signal signature (added harmonics due to nonliniarity) will differ at different audio levels.

[wankelspinner]

What is an example of one of these digital pots? Any specific component recommendations?

[andydelle]

There is a common misconception among audiophiles about pots. The quality of the pot has nothing to do with sound quality. Yes a cheap pot can become intermittent and noisy but that's not the audio quality problem. The problem is the circuit design. Any amplification stage has a finite input capacitance. A pot is basically a resistor in series with the next stage. An RC network is a low pass filter. Depending on the resistance of the volume setting and the next stage capacitance, the higher frequencies get further attenuated than the lower frequencies as the gain is reduced. That is why some pots "sound bad". Replacing the pot with an expensive $50 instrumentation grade part is not going to fix that audio quality problem. The problem is the circuit design. Simple stepped attenuators do not avoid this issue either as they are nothing more than a pot made from switched resistors in series, just like a pot. Better switched attenuator designs maintain a consistent impedance and therefore have minimal effect on audio quality. But as Paul said, the best attenuators are the high quality dedicated switched resistor ladder chips from Burr Brown and Cirrus Logic. These are not found in mass produced consumer HiFi gear. How about digital volume control? That too has a different set of problems, IMO, worse than any analog pot but good enough for an Ipod or sound bar.

[Mikexception]

I think too that it is. I observe that the more volume is up the more uopper band I notice. - for testing purpose I correct loudness repectively with other adjustment. . My guess is that with using potentiometer we change parameters of circuits - one is input impedance of controlled stage, other is apparently we may change load of previous stage - top up makes lowest impedance because input stage is hunted by wire capacities to ground , third I think potentiometers above 100K are affected by capacity to "ground" - they suppose to have metal body for screeening but it provides some capacity to audio track. I believe it was known to designers of vintage tube gear (or they practiced it by experimenting) In tube constructions they were even able to upbeat sopranos in low pot position. For that reason in many solutions they made loudness correction only with low range circuit With digital controll it is surely possibe to avioid variable resistors but if resistors allow unusual gains I prefer old "resistance games"

[erickort]

Paul McGowan, PS Audio sir i have a question...is a aftermarket equalizer produce better sound than the bose 901 speakers EQ? my buddy is a hifi nerd he says a aftermarket eq is better, i have a 30 band eq

[ThinkingBetter]

The volume level naturally affects the sound due to the Fletcher Munson hearing effect of human hearing being significantly optimized towards more narrow band listening at lower volume levels. It’s great for helping us hearing voices at low levels but horrible for enjoying music at low levels without use of loudness compensation (EQ).

[BlankBrain]

I'm pretty sure they're using high quality op-amps for the signal and digitally adjusting the gain outside the signal path.

[ulrikmortensen]

Penny and Giles conductive plastic potentiometer forever - perfect 35 years ago, still perfect today in my Daner Detal preamp. But not cheap.😅

[andrii]

When using a PC as a source, does volume level (in Windows, for example) influence sound reproduction? Even if you use USB to connect to external DAC, volume lvl in Win still affects volume lvl in the system. So I'm not asking about crappy audio out ports as output :)