Volume Control | Roon vs Preamp

[avta]

I have not tried to compare Roon volume control with preamp control. There is an extensive discussion on the Roon site about it. Here is one of the answers you may find of interest if you have not already seen it.

 

I have been playing with it extensively today. I tried Volume control of the DEQX vs Volume contol of Roon.

First thing to note is that the volume control of the DEQX is way more convenient. It works with a button on the device itself, and it has a remote control that works instantly. The Roon volume control scale is not very refined and the slider is a bit akward in use but that could be a matter of getting used to. The most unconvenient is the fact that Roon remote has to be open and ready to grab for it. When I use my Ipad as remote it goes to sleep after a while and it takes up to 5 seconds for Roon to be up and rady again. Pretty long when you only want to change the volume. If this all doesn’t matter for you then fine. My view is the same as Brian’s, it’s more a utility, a nice to have then a practical alternative to your volume control.

But what about sound quality. Well, that’s a though one. As said I tried both ways. Set the volume control of the DEQX to max (scary) and use Roon, or set Roon to max and use DEQX volume control.

Well the results where about the same as I have concluded before. Up to about -10 db there is no difference whatsoever. From there I thought subtle changes are creeping in, not instantly but just very gradually. In the extreme case of setting DEQX to max and using Roon for volume I was constantly in the range of -30 to -45 dB . In this range there is a clear loss in overall quality. Again, could very wel be DAC dependent. It just sounds like your amplifier has lost some of its power, in other words you lose quite a bit dynamics, sound stage flattens out, and micro dynamics and detail are degraded. Conclusion. Well, for convenience sake I would say no. Sound quality wise it depends I guess. My DEQX certainly loves to be fed with stronger signal then -40dB that’s for sure.

Also tried the difference between Analog volume and digital volume control in the DEQX itself again. The difference here is pretty small, but then again, it’s a 32bit floating point volume control. It doesn’t have to truncate the signal to 24 bit like Roon has to to be compatible with the dac’s input receiver so it’s not a question if Roon can handle it. It’s just not the right place in the chain for a full digital volume control I guess. Use it for convenience, set your main control elswhere in the chain.