That’s because there isn’t one. There is no “best”. The choice of line voltage setting is to ensure a reasonable match between the dCS unit and your particular set-up which will vary according to the music that you listen to, the input sensitivities of your equipment, the gain of your amplifiers, sensitivity of your speakers, the size of your room and how loud that you like to listen.
So how do you choose? You do not need test equipment to decide, you simply pick a voltage that allows you to set the volume control where you have control over what you hear and the input signal is not so large that you effectively only have a choice between no sound or too loud, drives the amplification into clipping or conversely is so small that no mater how much you turn up the volume control it remains too soft.
6v is best only if a) ones pre amp can handle 6v with out clipping or b) you are going direct to an amp and can ride the top 10dB of the volume. Otherwise 2v should be a better match
It’s possible. What I really like about the advanced reasoning models of OpenAI is that they seem so well engineered and fine tuned. In about two weeks they are releasing o3.
Strange as usually direct to a amp requires a lower output voltage - allowing the digital volume control of the dCS to remain in the sweet spot utilizing less attenuation
Sometimes it’s track dependent, I found. “Living Proof” by The War on Drugs sounds way better with 2V than 6V on my system. The music is too boomy and too bright at the end with 6V. It may be due to the recording.
I tried finding it on the specifications for the Dan D’agostino Progression integrated, and in the manual, but it doesn’t specify sensitivity. Either you’ll have to ask that manufacturer or try it out yourself. Does 6V out not give you distortion, does it still allow for a usable volume range? What setting sounds better to you?
I use a D’Agostino Momentum HD preamp/Momentum S250 MxV with my dCS Vivaldi full stack. The Momentum HD preamp is good for up to 10v input voltage.
I have tried both 6v and 2v output from the Vivaldi Apex DAC and even with my relatively inefficient 86db TAD CR1 MKII speakers, I prefer the more useable volume range on the HD preamp, with the DAC voltage set to 2v.
I’ve never settled on an opinion of which is best sonically (if there is a difference) and it was interesting, talking to a couple of technical guys from dCS at a Lina demonstration day, last year, and asking the question, “which is best - 2v or 6v out?” they stated that, post-Apex upgrade to the Vivaldi DAC, 2v was the preferred option!
Thank you Donald for sharing a fabulous information.
Thank you Steve for sharing your experience.
I was using Bartok (non-apex) with progression integrated for almost 3 years on 2V, until I discovered this thread. I briefly tried 6V for a day, it sounds good when listening to low volume (10’o clock on volume knob).
For now, will switch it back to 2V
I’m sure your post is meant as helpful, but if the point of fora such as this is to help each other out with knowledge and experience, how does AI generated info fit in? Maybe this should be part of a broader discussion, but personally I prefer human content.
Good point. The Terms of Service state “the Content…, is not machine- or randomly-generated,…’ which would include AI generated content, I guess. I was trying to be helpful because o3 comes with a subscription and is usually very reliable when web search is activated. I will refrain from posting AI generated answers in the future.
I wouldn’t go so far. I think AI-generated material can, at the very least, be a good starting point for further discussion and for gathering factual material (hallucinations excepted, of course). It should always be flagged by the poster, which is exactly what you did. Although it would be very sad if discussion forums became dominated by such content - perhaps the AIs would like to talk to each other? - I suspect we are all, like it or not, going to be using the things more and more.
When my son was much younger, maybe 4 or 5 (ca 10 years ago for reference) we heard voices from his bedroom late one night. When I went in to investigate I found he had managed to get Siri into an argument with Alexa. It was a strange, slightly circular discussion but hilarious nonetheless. He was gurgling with laughter.
Gosh, I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up in an environment where such things exist. Ten years ago? That would be about the time the film “Her” came out. I think we must be very close to that as a reality now: having our own “Samanthas”, and wasn’t it a “Charles” in the case of the Amy Adams character?
