I was reading a separate thread about Naim and Roon, which indicated that SQ was better when volume control was executed from the hardware end of a particular Naim device vs. Roon volume control. In that thread, Brian Luczkiewicz, Roon Labs CTO, wrote (see below) that implementation of volume control is in the hands of the device manufacturer.
So, what do those with Devialet Expert devices do? Quite frankly, I have always used Roon volume control for simplicity sake. Now I am wondering whether to use the Devialet remote. To further complicate matters, I wonder whether there’s any difference in implementation between Expert and Expert Pro devices.
I would presume volume commands from Roon are interpreted by Devialet in exactly the same way as commands from the remote. You are controlling the device, and the audio stream remains lossless. I leave mine set to “Device Volume”, I have a Pro with CI, and the signal path is always purple.
When using Devialet Air or Roon Ready to stream to the device, the volume control exposed in Roon is equivalent to using the device’s remote control.
The important thing is where the volume adjustment is applied, not which control point you use. There are hundreds of products where Roon’s slider controls hardware volume.
That quote of mine is very, very old. It’s from before Roon had any DSP support, before RAAT, etc–over three years ago. It describes compromises made in certain USB DACs that do not generalize to all situations, but especially not to networked products.
@john is correct. There is no difference between using Roon’s volume control and the Devialet remote. Both are controlling the same volume adjustment mechanism.
Naim to do not expose the hardware control of their streamers as they are designed to go through Naim preamp. The volume control Roon can control is a digital one that Naim say should not be used to maintain sq it’s there only to have airplay ratification.
