Are Mike Moffat (Schiit, Theta) dacs "louder"?

[wbh]

I owned a Theta Chorma once (and used it for several years) and thought it was good for the $$ (at the time ... late 90s). I no longer own it, but I did recall it sounding a bit louder. More gain/volume when I A/B'd between other DACs and disc players. 

Ditto with my Modi MB, which I've only owned for 2mos. ... but compared it against several other DACs (none Moffat) and CD players. Again. more gain/volume when I A/B'd between other DACs and disc players. 

I know the std. output is  supposed to be ~2.0 Vrms.  

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit DAC APx555 Standard Test Suite_ Modi Multibit.pdf

 

Given the "Loudness Wars" controversy, I wonder if there is some way to game the system ... w/o touching that std. and holy Vrms=2.0.

 

[JoeWhip]

I still have my Theta Pro Basic which I use when the Yggy goes in for an update. The Theta is louder.

[AudioDoctor]

I think the Yggy puts out 4 volts through the balanced outputs and 2 volts through the RCA unbalanced outputs. It can be noticeable and people ask me why my volume control in HQPlayer is turned down farther than it is when they use it on their system.

 

I don't know if it's something inherent to the design of a truly balanced output, or if that's just the way they did it. I just know that's the way it is.