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Full Version: D200 not very good sounding at low volume
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Its most likely your ears and not the Devialet .. at low volumes , the ear loses sensitivity of both bass and treble .. called the fletcher munson curve.
Old day amps had a loudness button to cure this , but the devialet has tone controls , up the bass and the treble to effectively combat this
Very familiar with gletscher munson. Got nothing to do with the effects i described. If our ears were so poor at low volumes every system inluding quitly played unamplified life music would sound bad and it doesn't.
That said, what evidence do you have that what you're hearing is caused specifically by the digital volume control?
Mike,

As Damon says, this topic has come up before. Can you describe what it is that's 'not so good'?
I have no prove that the digital volume control is causing this, its just an assumption as it is well known that a digital volume control is causing a loss of resolution. As mentioned before, some conventional amps, especially high power ss are often poor at low volumes, for different reasons. Pass often talkes about the importance of the first watt for a good reason.

With the dev if listening at a level of say - 30 or less music sounds boring. Dynamic contrasts, both micro and macro, are reduced as is resolution. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than others, maybe with the horns it is more obvious, who knows.

Anyway, obviously some reviewers also noticed this effect.

We discussed the effects of the max output power settings before. One member said that the dev is reducing the rail voltage of the power supplies. Because of this i guess you need to crank up the volume which means less digital attentuation for the some volume level. i'm using the 30
Watts setting with my horns. i'm sure at full power settings my horns would not sound good at all even at high volumes. I think dev put in this option not to protect speakers but to accomodate higher efficiency speakers and to reduce digital attentuation.

Lets stop further discussions about this subject. Apparently noone besides me noticed this effect. Thats fine with me. Guess enjoy your music!
I have no prove that the digital volume control is causing this, its just an assumption as it is well known that a digital volume control is causing a loss of resolution. As mentioned before, some conventional amps, especially high power ss are often poor at low volumes, for different reasons. Pass often talkes about the importance of the first watt for a good reason.

With the dev if listening at a level of say - 30 or less music sounds boring. Dynamic contrasts, both micro and macro, are reduced as is resolution. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than others, maybe with the horns it is more obvious, who knows.

Anyway, obviously some reviewers also noticed this effect.

We discussed the effects of the max output power settings before. One member said that the dev is reducing the rail voltage of the power supplies. Because of this i guess you need to crank up the volume which means less digital attentuation for the some volume level. i'm using the 30
Watts setting with my horns. i'm sure at full power settings my horns would not sound good at all even at high volumes. I think dev put in this option not to protect speakers but to accomodate higher efficiency speakers and to reduce digital attentuation.

Lets stop further discussions about this subject. Apparently noone besides me noticed this effect. Thats fine with me. Guess enjoy your music!
(25-Apr-2016, 13:57)Duomike Wrote: [ -> ]I have no prove that the digital volume control is causing this, its just an assumption as it is well known that a digital volume control is causing a loss of resolution. As mentioned before, some conventional amps, especially high power ss are often poor at low volumes, for different reasons. Pass often talkes about the importance of the first watt for a good reason.

With the dev if listening at a level of say - 30 or less music sounds boring. Dynamic contrasts, both micro and macro, are reduced as is resolution. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than others, maybe with the horns it is more obvious, who knows.

Anyway, obviously some reviewers also noticed this effect.

We discussed the effects of the max output power settings before. One member said that the dev is reducing the rail voltage of the power supplies. Because of this i guess you need to crank up the volume which means less digital attentuation for the some volume level. i'm using the 30
Watts setting with my horns. i'm sure at full power settings my horns would not sound good at all even at high volumes. I think dev put in this option not to protect speakers but to accomodate higher efficiency speakers and to reduce digital attentuation.

Lets stop further discussions about this subject. Apparently noone besides me noticed this effect. Thats fine with me. Guess enjoy your music!

I told You before. You dont need to lower the output power, especially You drive 16 Ohms omega drivers !!! common mistake!  I have lived with Uno and Duo for 15 years and listening Trio in bigger dealer's room! The problem is in Your "tweaking" and subwoofer amps, not in digital volume control ! Cheers , Hrky
(25-Apr-2016, 15:00)seasusa Wrote: [ -> ]With my D200 I have not noticed any reduction in sound quality at low volumes. The only issue I have is with the treble sounding harsh for about 30-60min, after initial start-up. My speakers are the ELAC BS314 which can be very revealing thanks to the Heil air motion tweeter. It takes about an hour for the treble to settle down.

That's why I leave the Devialet on all the time. Doesn't cost too much power compared to stand-by.
Have you tried to limit the power in config and thus use volumes closer to 0?
IE limit the 200 to 50w or less..
(25-Apr-2016, 13:57)Duomike Wrote: [ -> ]Lets stop further discussions about this subject. Apparently noone besides me noticed this effect. Thats fine with me. Guess enjoy your music!

It's nice to notice the world hasn't changed a bit Big Grin

I was experiencing the same exact thing. Relatively sensitive speakers and volume levels that went way below -40dB -> lifeless sound.

I tried to discuss the problem on a few forums, but on all of them I got a bunch of non-answers like "I have completely different speakers and listen to them at a way higher volume leves, but I have not noticed any problems and thus I don't believe any problems exist". Also I was told that the problem must be with my speakers, my hearing, my listening space, and bunch of other things, but certainly not Devialet. It didn't matter that low listening at low volumes was great with the same speakers, same ears, same room but with a different amp.

So eventually I gave up, kinda like you're doing now. Welcome to my world Smile

Im my case the solution was to lower the output power enough so that it would scale the volume control so that my normal listening volume was around -40dB. Then it seemed to work relative well and had some room for lowering the volume before things got bad. Interestingly enough, I complained about this to Devialet also and I feel like the situation is way better with recent firmwares. It used to be way worse.

I hope you find settings that work for you.
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