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[neal333]

Hi, like many people I have a DAC (Arcam rDAC) with an output signal that is quite high for my amp (Musical Fidelity X-80) which means I rarely get above 9 o'clock on the dial and would like more control from the vol knob. Using Arcam on WASAPI with no vol control on laptop. Question is if I use MC preamp settings to reduce output signal to the DAC, am I losing any signal quality by doing this processing? It is a bit like using an inline attenuator to reduce the signal reaching the amp.

[rocksteady40]

Neil,

  Yes, you can definitely use a "pre-amp" on the output of your DAC as an attenuator.  By definition it will "degrade" the signal to some degree, but you probably won't notice it.  You could also use some fixed pads/attenuators between your DAC and amp.  I did this just recently. 

  With digital signals, turning down the volume digitally does cause loss in resolution.  You're basically shifting the ones and zeros to the right but since there are only so many bits in a digital system (16, 24 etc), the bits start to be truncated (cropped off).  So adding attenuation to the output of your DAC (pads or an analog preamp), leaving MC turned up high (maybe not all the way) so that your DAC's volume can be turned up higher is the way to go.

  I have a multi amp system and what I do is turn up MC (my only digital volume control) nearly all the way up,, and then adjust (turn down) my amps to get the maximum volume that I'll ever want.  That way I'm maximizing the number of bits the DAC is using. 

  I hope this helps and isn't too confusing.