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[Spike1000]

I have two USB DACs

1) Audio-Gd NFB-15 (old model)
This appears as SPDIF Interface TE7022 Audio w/SPDIF [WASPI] on my Windows 10 media centre and works exactly as it you'd expect, the JRiver (20 and 21) volume slider changes the volume of the DACs output.

2) A recent purchase of a 2nd hand Musical Fidelity M1-DAC
This appears as Musical Fidelity M1 24/96 [WASAPI] on my Windows 10 media centre but the the JRiver (20 and 21) volume slider or mute does NOT have any effect on the volume of the DACs output.

I don't get why this would be  ?

I've swapped the DACs over keeping the JRiver settings the same (I obviously changed the audio device) and it's no go with the M1 DAC. I've tried JR 20 and 21, rebooted, and still no joy.

'Disable Event Style' has no effect and 'Maximise device volume during playback' is NOT set.

Breaking news: Volume does work when I select Musical Fidelity M1 24/96 [Direct Sound] but I want to use WASAPI.

Is it me, JR or the DAC?

Spike

[blgentry]

What volume mode are you using in MC's options?  Tools > Options > Audio > Volume > Volume Mode .

Many DACs have their volume fixed at a system level and using OS volume won't let you change them.  Internal volume should always use MC's 64 bit internal volume processing and should work with any DAC as far as I know.

Brian.

[Spike1000]

What volume mode are you using in MC's options?  Tools > Options > Audio > Volume > Volume Mode .

We'll that's fixed it, but it was a bit strange.. . .

It was set to 'System' which worked for the Audio-Gd but not the Musical Fidelity
Then it got weird when I set it to 'Application' as that did work, but only once After changing to 'Internal' and then back again 'Application' it wouldn't work again.  ?
Anyway 'Application' is not the ideal so I've set it to 'Internal' and that works for the Musical Fidelity, yay!
The windows volume slider no longer has an effect just the JR one, but my cheap Windows Media Centre remote still moves the JR slider so I still have remote volume control, yay!

I wasn't aware that some USB DACs have fixed volume, just like using JR river, you just keep learning! 

Many thanks for your help once again Brian.

Spike

[JAVA Alive]

Hi,

not sure this will explain 100% of your issue, but just to give you a better understanding of differences between dacs regarding volume management from JRiver :

  - the differences you may have are not directly related to dacs but to the drivers you are using.
  - when you change your dac, you usually also change the driver, that is why it looks related to the dac.
  - some drivers will bypass on purpose the system volume. The goal of this is to avoid signal modification by system (the OS, windows in my case) because this system can seriously alter sound quality (ex : they also handle mixing functions with applications which allow you, for example, to listen at music on JRiver and a video in your browser at the same time, or a skype conversation, etc).
  - People who use this kind of "system bypass" driver make a choice of quality. They usually try to reach what we call "bit perfect" by giving the bits of the sound directly to the soundcard or the usb dac.
  - these "system bypass" drivers are ASIO, Kernel Streaming and wasapi (not 100% sure fopr wasapi, I have no experience with it).
  - with this kind of drivers, if you still want to manage volume by software you have to setup JRiver on "internal". In that case JRiver will modify level before sending it to the sound card therfore it will work.
  - with KS or Asio diver, operating system volume will not operate whatever the setup you do on volume in JRiver
  - if you want to have the OS volume to work, you must use a driver that does not bypass the volume such as directx but quality may be impact and it is not a recomended setup for a hifi configuration on my opinion.
  - I don't know what is the "application" setup for volume in JRiver. Can't help with this one.

[Gaspode]

FWIW - I had the exact same symptoms on a fresh windows install with a V-LINK and also had to set my volume mode to Internal to get the MC volume to work as well as the system volume. (Tools > Options > Audio > Volume > Volume Mode > Internal).

Thank you @bigentry for your guidance!

The original V-Link (black case) and V-LINK II (silver case) are plug and play requiring no external drivers. They get installed automatically the first time you connect the device to the computer. The V-LINK 192 does have external drivers that can be downloaded from the Musical Fidelity website.