Low volume using external DAC

[Playplanks]

I'm looking at purchasing an external DAC and tried a friends project dac box s2+. I connected it via the spdif into the optical input on the dac and from there the rca out into a Graham slee headphone amp which only has 2 analogue inputs. The volume level was very low even with the b2 volume set at max. Any reason for this or is this particular dac just not compatible? By the way the b2 works perfectly connecting via analogue to the headphone amp.

[Daniel Taylor]

The B2 sends the full volume code to the DAC.  And when using the digital output, the B2's volume control has no effect.  So the problem must be with either the DAC or the amp into which it is fed.  I have read that various DACs can sometimes have different output levels.  It's possible that your DAC and your amp are not well matched. 

Have you tried it with different CDs?  Some discs, especially classical, can have a rather low volume level.

Does your headphone amp have a volume control?  Is there any difference when you switch between the analog inputs?

[PMB]

Hi Playplanks,

As Daniel says, the output level from the B2's optical is fixed, so I suspect this issue is something to do with the DAC.

Paul

Brennan Support

[Paul Dillon]

Hi Playplanks

It so happens that I use the Project dac box S2+ and it works perfectly feeding it into an Audiolab 8000s there is certainly not a lack of output from the dac, which makes me wonder if the problem is your toslink connection. I do not believe that the problem is the dac. Good luck and I hope you solve the problem.

Paul