[PSB Guy]

I bought my Salkstreamer in 2014, equipped with S/PDIF connections since my DAC, an AVA Vision DAC, only had S/PDIF inputs. I used the coaxial input on the AVA DAC and all was fine. Recently, I've been wanting to save space so I thought I'd swap in a USB dongle DAC instead. At first I tried an Audioquest Dragonfly Black 1.5, but when I did I found I had to turn the volume up to around the 2-3 o'clock position on my AVA Synergy Control Amp to get the same volume I was getting at the 10 o'clock position with the AVA DAC. Thinking maybe the Audioquest DAC's 1.2 volt output might be the culprit, I tried a Hidizs S9 Pro which has a 2.0 volt output. Same low volume problem. Then I tried a FiiO D03K (I know, it's cheap) using it's coaxial input and optimal volume was back at the 10 o'clock position.

Any suggestion as to why I might be getting such low volume using USB?

Cornelis

[jsalk]

This is not all that unusual.  You might notice that in Roon, the name of your device mitght not be the name of the DAC you own.  It might be something like XMOS or Amanero.  This is what Roon sees when listing a USB device.  It is the name of the USB interface, not the DAC itself.

The USB signal is fed into a USB interface circuit and the output of it is sent to the DAC section independently from the other digital inputs.  So the gain of the USB interface can be different than the levels of the other digital inputs.  It is based on the USB interface circuit used.

- Jim

[PSB Guy]

My Salkstreamer is one of the old ones, pre-Roon, so it uses MPD. In the system info pages, both the Dragonfly and the Hidizs show up properly. It's just that the volume level is much lower using any USB DAC. It's not a deal breaker, there are other solutions I will try. Thanks for the reply, Jim.

Cornelis