Pre-DAC Volume Control

[Jon Miles]

I found having the volume control available on the B2 Web Browser really useful but now that I'm using an external DAC/Toslink, that function no longer works. Is there a way to change that so that the Web Browser volume control can work even when using an external DAC? or is it an option for a future software version? (The equaliser does work pre-DAC so Im guessing it should be somehow?). Jon

[Daniel Taylor]

I've wished that I could explain why pre-DAC volume control is not likely to happen.  But I don't understand it well enough to explain to people who understand it even less than I do.

I just Googled "digital domain volume control" and found some things that I think are not too difficult to understand.

Standard CD digital audio is limited to 16 bits of resolution; that's what the B2 has.  Every 6 dB reduction in volume, results in the loss of one bit of resolution.  So it won't take much reduction in volume to use up most of your 16 bits of data.  Apparently, to do it anywhere close to correctly, the data must be up-sampled to a much higher bitrate.  The B2 does not have the computing power for that.

So, unless I'm missing something pretty big here, I don't think we'll ever see digital volume control on the B2.

If someone can explain this better, I'd welcome the enlightenment.