Volume levels

I have just connected up the DMP-A8 to my (old) Audiolab 8000q preamp and whilst I love the sound quality coming out of the system, the volume levels whilst streaming are very low. Connection is via audio out coax. To get anywhere near the sort of listening volume I like I am having to put the A8 volume at around -20db and the amp at around 50%.

I thought there was a way to have a set output but cannot find it in the A8 manual. I am using the Aux input of the amp.

Is there a setting I am missing or is the normal expectation of the volume when using the analog out via coax?

 

If it is anything like the A6, ensure Volume Passthrough is ON if you want max digital output. You seem to be going straight to amp, so are using the inbuilt DAC, hence the analog volume control will instead be in play. Presumably this is the -20dB setting you refer to. Coax by the way is slightly ambiguous, you mean single ended RCA output, not any digital coax ? I would say -20dB with your main amp at 50% is reasonable and not unusual.

 

Thank you and that makes sense. I did mean RCA

 

Why connect a pre amp to a preamp?
Keith

 

You need to see my thread on DMP-A8 Connectivity. I am not trying to, but the manual is not clear as to what the output of the analogue audio is. On page 7 it says you can connect the analogue out to a pure preamp, whereas on page 27 it says connect to active speakers or a power amp.

What I am trying to do it to use the A8 DAC straight into my preamp. I do not want to use the A8 preamp.

If the replies in my earlier thread are wrong, how do I go from A8 DAC to external preamp?

 

Why would you want to go into an old Audiolab preamp ?
Keith

 

I am not sure I need to justify it but because I like the Audiolab style and also I want to do a sound comparison. If the A8 preamp is "better", and I am not sure it is unless I can compare, I will use the A8 preamp. It will then also mean having to run my CD transport via the A8 but again I need to compare before I just accept the A8.

Meanwhile I still do not know if I am going pre to pre or DAC to pre.

 

Both preamps should be audibly transparent, so unless the `audiolab ‘ is adding audible distortion…
Keith

 

In the absence of any answers as to whether it can be done or not, I will carry on as I am.

 

The A-8 doesn’t have a ‘passthrough’ like the A-6 so all you can is turn the Eversolo’s volume to fully unattenuated and then control volume from your Audiolab.
Keith

 

Considering the A8 has a R-ladder volume control in the analog domain (which you can also control with a remote...), and the fact that you also have a CD-transport (which requires a DAC, doesn't it?) I would definitely go with the A8 as a pre-amp. Also, one component (old...) less in the audio chain.

 

The A8 pre isn't transparent

 

Why do you think both are audio transparent? Why do you care so much which pre he chooses to use?

 

I do not listen to Srboljub that much any more - he's always too much into "richness/fullness/punchness" for my taste. He seems to be consistent, though, about the sound characteristics of the gear he reviews, when it comes to comparisons; he never contradicts himself. Now, every coin has two sides:

- it could be the A8 is transparent, and the A6 is "thin in the mids"
- it could be the A6 is transparent, and the A8 is "bold in the mids"

Cannot comment more than this; cannot dismiss nor confirm, as I do not own both devices to compare them (actually, ehm... I own none)
I'd wait for Amir at ASR to review it, and then go through the distortion diagrams and look at the levels of the harmonics, to see if there appears to be a relevant difference; as well as the FR, that could relate to the "richness" in the mid-range - or the lack thereof.

 

None of that is going to tell you if it's transparent or not. His reviews are rather useless in telling how something will sound. Which is all that really matters.

 

Because basically it is what a pre-amp should be by definition. It is not supposed to alter the sound in any way.
To color the sound there are, on purpose, the tone controls; but they are there for your convenience - they have a flat point where they should not alter the sound.
For more aggressive sound alteration there are the equalizers. An equalizer should also be transparent, if all its levels are left flat.

 

What it should do and what they actually do is very different things. Setting the bar of proof pretty low there

 

Of course his reviews are just ear-candy, I was just pointing out that he doesn't contradict himself (easy if you just only - more or less - repeat yourself...).

Here he says the A8 is somehow richer in the mids - something the A6 is not; and if you watch the A6 review he did, he says the same: the A6 is surgically clean and precise, but not "rich".
These of course are his words (hopefully dictated by his listening impressions)

Since a (possibly?) transparent DAC cannot be richer or thinner in the mids (or anywhere else) by definition, because that's not its job, the difference must be in its analog section, hence the pre-amp.

 

That's exactly the reason of the initial comment "Both preamps should be audibly transparent, so unless the `audiolab ‘ is adding audible distortion…"
If they are, OK. If they are not...

 

@Milky... We're not at war again, uh...? ;-)