The 2 DACs I have already has digital volume control which I believe are provided by the AKM/ESS chip.
Do I still need volume attenuation/pot at the preamp/ headphone amp input?
Thanks
Do I still need volume attenuation/pot at the preamp/ headphone amp input?
Thanks
Last edited:
What kind of dac? If it uses an AKM chip with DSD volume bypass, then you might want to put an analog volume control after the dac. Also, depends if the volume control in the dac now is analog or digital.
I have both DACs using AKM and ESS chips and both have digital volume control.
I have not read much on AKM but I'm the ESS TT volume control feature is built-in to the chip.
I have not read much on AKM but I'm the ESS TT volume control feature is built-in to the chip.
At least some AKM dacs have digital volume control in the chip too. But for DSD they may have a volume bypass function. That's to keep DSD pristine, rather than convert the 1-bit data stream to some kind of multi-bit data that can be easily volume controlled.