How loud should the output from sound card to receiver be?

[vince1714]

Hello, I just created a new home audio setup for myself. I am confused about how loud the output from my pci soundcard to receiver should be for optimal playback quality. Here is the exact equipment I have.

PCI Soundcard: ASUS Xonar DSX PCIe 7.1

Receiver: Denon DRA-395 - 80 watts max power.

Speakers: 2 pair of Jensen CJR 5.25 inch Bookshelf speakers, Impedance: 8 ohms, 50 watts max power handling.

I have 2 pairs of speakers connected to the receiver at once and the receiver has an A+B setup. I am connecting the soundcard to receiver using a 3.5mm to stereo RCA wire which is plugged into the CD line level input of the receiver. Am I supposed to turn the sound output of the sound card to 100? would that cause distortion of the signal coming from it? on my old setup I would leave the sound card output at 50 and just turn up the volume of my receiver to what I wanted. A friend I have says to leave the soundcard output set low then turn the receiver up loud to compensate. I want to know the proper way to do this.

 

[TLS Guy]

You will get the best signal to noise ration turning the computer output up as high as possible.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Not so much as noise/signal ratio, but it's best to have volume control in the analog realm, not digital since digital (ie on the pc) could reduce audio resolution.
Tldr: Mark is correct : leave the volume on the pc at maximum

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[vince1714]

Ok, does everyone else agree with this because I just tried this on my older setup and with the sound card output at max it seems as if the sound coming from the speakers is distorted/compressed/too hot, and it seems to sound better if I lower the output from the soundcard to 60 from 100 and raise the volume of the receiver instead. I could just be biased and looking for a certain outcome. And my older setup has one of those integrated sound cards built into the motherboard, which I'm assuming is low quality and could be the cause of this. So on a high quality dedicated soundcard there would be no reasonable concern that turning it's output to maximum would cause the signal to distort/reduce quality? just want to be 100% clear on this.

 

[ski2xblack]

Mark is correct : leave the volume on the pc at maximum

Since the OP is relying on the analog output of his sound card, we should differentiate between setting the pc volume to maximum vs. setting it as high as possible without clipping the sound card output. The OP's latest post suggests this is indeed what's happening, hence the better results with the pc volume reeled in a bit.

 

[everettT]

What is the music source encoded in? I agree with the others with regards to the output being full. Also can you output optical into the denon?

Ok, does everyone else agree with this because I just tried this on my older setup and with the sound card output at max it seems as if the sound coming from the speakers is distorted/compressed/too hot, and it seems to sound better if I lower the output from the soundcard to 60 from 100 and raise the volume of the receiver instead. I could just be biased and looking for a certain outcome. And my older setup has one of those integrated sound cards built into the motherboard, which I'm assuming is low quality and could be the cause of this. So on a high quality dedicated soundcard there would be no reasonable concern that turning it's output to maximum would cause the signal to distort/reduce quality? just want to be 100% clear on this.

 

[ski2xblack]

No digi inputs of any sort on the Denon.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Since the OP is relying on the analog output of his sound card, we should differentiate between setting the pc volume to maximum vs. setting it as high as possible without clipping the sound card output. The OP's latest post suggests this is indeed what's happening, hence the better results with the pc volume reeled in a bit.

It sounds to me (pun intended) that OP's old original onboard audio device is utter trash which has piss poor analog stage thus the need for reduce the top volume to reduce signal clipping (too hot)
This is not how it should work.
See more details here:
https://superuser.com/questions/492281/from-a-quality-perspective-what-is-better-turning-volume-up-in-the-software-i/492295#492295

I'm generally not huge fan of PC Internal sound devices since RFI insulation could vary from poor to barely ok. Normally your best bet is to have pc use some sort of digital audio out (spdif, hdmi or external usb dac) and have audio decoded and analog processed in the receiver, alas OP's receiver doesn't seem to have any digital inputs

ASUS Xonar DSX PCIe 7.1 is about $45 currently. It would be a bit hard to buy 2nd hand receiver with digital inputs for similar money, but not impossible