I think I posted this several years ago. For those who run dCS direct into an amplifier without use of a preamplifier, is there a feature which can be incorporated (similar to Linn) which allows a user defined initial startup maximum volume level. The idea being to avoid having the dCS volume pot wide open by accident, thus risking blowing up the speakers
Hi Gregg,
Hope you don’t mind me moving this to its own topic in Feature Requests I can track it & we can discuss a bit better.
Thanks for the suggestion. Would this volume only be relevant if the unit was above a set level when it turns on, or would it default to that level even if the last volume level before turning off was actually lower than the maximum?
Would you want this to happen from standby, or only when the unit has been fully switched off?
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Also coming from Linn, I would like this feature too. Always the same (save) level coming from standby.
Hi James
I found my original post:
I recently upgraded the board in my secondary streamer, a Linn Klimax DS, to Organik specification. There is a setting in the Linn app which I would like to recommend to dCS for study and incorporation into a future version of Mosaic.
Many on this forum, including dCS themselves at the factory and hifi shows, run their units directly into an amplifier and eschew the use of a preamp. This allows for “accidents” to happen. Examples:
- someone forgets to set the output of their dCS unit to 2V and it remains on 6V with the volume setting in Mosaic at a high level. Boom go the speakers
- someone accidentally has the volume level in Mosaic at 0db and hits play. Boom go the speakers.
The Linn app has the ability for a user to set:
a startup volume in dB
a maximum volume in dB
This seems like a nice fail safe feature which can prevent future accidents from occurring.
Food for thought?
Best
Gregg
I like the idea of a max startup volume; a real safety aid and highly complementary to the Vol Lock feature welcomed in beta 3.0 by those who use a preamp and wish to avoid having two volume controls in play.
If I were in the no-pre camp, I think I’d like the volume to be a max and if I had switched it off at a lower volume then this would be the volume at which it starts up. It would annoy me if it always started at the one fixed and maximum volume.
FWIW
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Out of curiosity, for those connecting dCS directly to a power amp, how do you change the volume—on the Mosaic app or with the dCS remote?
Before adding a preamp, I used to change the volume on Mosaic, which was inaccurate and difficult (due to finger movement on an Android phone). So, I bought a dCS remote, which was very heavy to use. These are some of the reasons I eventually got a preamp with a light and convenient remote.
That’s why it’s know colloquially as “the plank”…
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Indeed. The reason it is so large is that it has an additional circa. 18 buttons to control a silver disc transport which was part of the Vivaldi 4 box stack , Its predecessor ( which I call the teardrop due to its section) was much smaller. It was also hard to use as the engraved legends were miniscule .
There was rumour of the new IR remote for Lina DAC X being reprogrammed for other dCS models but nothing seems to have come of this.
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Many of us have, over the years, trained various cheaper and lighter remotes with the dCS codes (which they publish). Our planks sit unused in drawers. When I had a direct connection dac to power amp all the controls I needed day to day were: start/stop/eject, enter track number, volume up/down. There are a number of past threads that go into details of what other trainable remotes owners have tried and like. I can’t comment on Mosaic, but I can say that when I visit a dealer and play their streamed music via an iPad I have found the very small controls for essentials such as volume to be intensely irritating.
