Force Max Volume / Disable Volume Control

Support
1

I’ve today installed a FiiO E10 DAC / Amp to my remote (MacBook Pro) For £60.00 I think it’s a bargin, transformed the listening experience no end.

It has it’s own physical Volume Control so I can use Force Max Vol and Disable Vol Control.

Could someone explain the best one to use or do I check both boxes?

Thanks

Kind regards,
Tim

2

Disable is best when volume is being handled elsewhere as it bypasses all volume processing in Roon. I’m not sure when Force Max is best used.

3

Thanks Andy that’s how I’ve got it set and it sound fantastic.

Regads,
Tim

4

I concur. In fact, at first tried Forced. Then because I use my preamp to regulate volume level as opposed to the digital volume control of a software player or my Dac which also has a preamp, I switched to Disable. I also believe the SQ improved as well in switching that setting from Force to Disable. Despite reading each abstract when clicking on the information icon to describe the function, I am still wondering what the actual difference between the two settings are. I have posed the question in my earlier posts hoping roon support would favor us with an explanation of the distinction between the two settings. But as far as I know, I have not seen an explanation from roon support. If I am incorrect about that, apologies in advance. As it remains, I am using Disable.

Best,
Richard

5

Thanks Richard for the reply. I think we’ve chatted about this before.

Perhaps @mike could let us have an explanation of the two options?

6

Hi Richard,

The only information I can add beyond the threads you have seen is in the following threads:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/bit-resolution-impact-from-roon-volume-control/1456/2

My understanding based on the above is that Disable is best when you are content for some downstream analog or digital volume control to have full command of volume. When you use it you are telling Roon not to engage in any volume negotiation with gear further down the chain.

In contrast, Force Max has Roon send a use max volume command to the driver which is the most that Roon can do to ensure that downstream gear retains a bit-perfect stream through any downstream digital volume control and into the DAC chip. This might be convenient when your DAC has separate digital volume settings for different inputs (eg.USB or coax) and you want to ensure that whenever you use Roon you are defaulting to max volume regardless of prior volume setting for that input. How the driver and downstream gear actually implement that command, of course, is outside Roon’s control. Sometimes a max volume command may over ride a previous volume setting for a particular input, sometimes it may not. Sometimes it may disable downstream digital volume control, sometimes it may work differently.

The above is just my understanding of @brian in the threads above. Hopefully he can join in and explain why I’m a dunderhead if it is too far wrong !

1 Like
7

Yes, Mike’s input will be appreciated and welcome especially to clarify the distinctions between the two settings, which, hard as I try to grasp, is still confusing. I do not mean to belabor the subject. So perhaps the best route is to follow Mike’s admonition to post in the Support subforum and pose the question to roon support.

Best,
Richard

8

I’ve popped this thread into the Support category as per the above.

1 Like
9

Hello andybob,

Thank you for explanations and references. I hope there is room on the bench for another potential dunderhead (smile), “moi”. Given the generous support provided by roon, I will start a thread devoted to Forced/Disable settings for the purpose of obtaining clarity from the developers. My outcome has always been to insure that 100% volume reaches my Dac and thereafter my preamp. To insure this, I insure that depending on the device selected for output, I enter AMS (audio midi setup) and insure that the master/channel 1/channel 2 if separate settings are all set to max or full. And if I am in iTunes, that it is set to full volume. Or if I am in Amarra Symphony in Amarra/iTunes mode that both are set to 0.0 (full volume) and do not use either programs to regulate volume. My W4S Dac2 DSDse has several inputs, USB, coax 1 and 2, AES, I2S, and the range is 0 to 70 for each input level. Reduce the range and truncation occurs. My STP-SE Stage 2 preamp is used to control the volume level. The higher the value from 0 to 70, the less truncation can occur but at some setting the best rendition occurs. Then there is the influence of Dirac Live or iRC depending on which player I employ but that controls the gain settings as distinguished from volume level.

My outcome for roon is to take roon completely out of any influence on the volume levels for each of the stereo channel and master so that my preamp is the sole control for the volume level. I understand the Disable setting vs Force accomplishes that outcome. Despite your take on the objectives for each setting, I remain uncertain. Hence, it’s time for me to post in the Support subforum for clarification so that I can be assured that my present setting, Disable, delivers max volume levels for both stereo channels.

Appreciate your response,
Richard

10

Ah, good! Thank you for taking care of that. Appreciate your proactive action to get this subject sorted out.

Best,
Richard

11

No worries Richard, be interesting to find out.
You may not need to make a new thread, I’ve carted this one into the Support category.

12

Snap ! …

13

Agreed. I’ll supply cheer leading from the sidelines.

Best,
Richard

14

I find that ‘Disable’ does not work for me. Using Roon 1.1 on a NUC with Win 10 outputting to Devialet AIR the volume slider remains active even when I set ‘disable’. By contrast, ‘Force Max’ appears to work fine.

15

@andybob Thanks Andy for your input, much appreciated

16

I find that ‘Disable’ does not work for me. Using Roon 1.1 on a NUC with Win 10 outputting to Devialet AIR the volume slider remains active even when I set ‘disable’. By contrast, ‘Force Max’ appears to work fine.

Try the latest build–I believe that this is fixed now.

17

This is a good summary of how it’s meant to work.

Build 51 had a couple of bugs in this area, particularly with the “disable” setting–they are fixed in later builds.

18

Hello Brian,

Imagined or otherwise, when V1.1 arrived I had already determined that between Disable and Forced for my system that Disable actually sounded better than Forced for SQ. My system employs a Wyred 4 Sound Dac2 DSDse and a W4S STP-SE Stage2 preamp set up so the the Dac is set to FIXED so that the preamp is the regulator for Defeatable - 32 bit volume control. I only employ using the Asynchronous USB input or Coax inputs; the volume range levels for both are set 0-70 AND the preamp does the “analog” volume discrete volume levels. The higher up the range the less truncation may occur (depending on production quality of course). Given my OS is OSX 10.10.5 and my Dac2 DSDse does not require drivers for 32Bit/384/DSD64/128 (256 is not support by OSX, me thinks without ASIO which are not available for W4S Dac2 DSDse), am I missing something by choosing Disable over Forced? Sorry for the wordy ramp to my question (smile).

Best,
Richard

1 Like
19

The only difference between disable and force is that force mode sets the OS level volume to the maximum level and unmutes the output when Roon initializes the zone. After that they both run the same code. If the volume is already unmuted/maxed out, then force does nothing different than disable at all.

I can’t think of a logical explanation for an SQ difference between the two.

20

So for best performance should you check both or just Forced Mode. Why are there two options?