Hi, a hopefully quick question. I use Roon for volume control as my MOTU M4 sadly does not allow volume control for all 4 channels which I need because of subwoofers.
The chain is Roon → Roon bridge → Audiolense Convolver → MOTU M4 → Poweramp + Subwoofers
So I do now use DSP Volume control in Roon. My question is do I need to upsample to preserve the best possible audio quality or is this not needed?
Upsampling doesn’t preserve, but modifies the digital data.
Could you possibly provide screenshots of setup and signal path, as well as describe in more detail, what your train of thought is, actually…
For volume control alone, up-sampling will do absolutely nothing in terms of sound quality. Disregarding computational errors, gain followed by up-sampling gives the same results as up-sampling followed by gain. In terms of resources, it’s better to apply the gain at lower sample rates, as less computations are needed. Up-sampling is thus not only unnecessary, it’s not recommended in this case.
1 Like
Here is my signal path with and without upsampling
My thought is that DSP volume should be less lossy in 32bit than it is in 24 or 16. But I am absolutely not sure if that is correct. This is why I ask 
I am not sure if I understand you correctly but I don’t gain but decrease the value. Or is that in this case the same?
It’s the same maths but with opposite signs 
At what bit depth does your end point implement digital volume?
It very likely adapts to its precision of computing internally anyways, then definitely applies it’s own internal dithering algorithm - nothing you could positively influence with anything you do beforehand.
Sample rate upscaling definitely buys you nothing in terms of volume adjustment.
I am using Roon bridge so I hope what I read in the Roon manual should apply:
DSP Volume
Uses Roon’s built-in 64bit dithered volume processing. This is a high-quality option, but should not be your first choice for hardware that provides volume control natively.
So I will not use upsampling.
Thank you for taking the time answering questions from less knowledgeable individuals!
1 Like
Yes, should apply as stated…
Alright, just realized you mentioned Roon bridge in your initial post, so ZOTAC is a computer with whatever OS and audio lense installed.
For future posts requesting any sort of advice, it’s always best to be as verbal as possible about all hardware, software, their versioning, and interconnection details, from your internet connection all the way through to every endpoint with their DACs, no matter if you think it’s relevant or not - makes it easier to envision the environment for everyone else…
I’ll try do add that next time! Thank you once more and have a nice weekend!
This topic was automatically closed 36 hours after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.