I now have a NAC 102 at the front of my system, and I have about 60 degrees of usable volume control (7 o’clock to 9 o’clock) before it gets unbearably loud (switching it on for the first time with the Volume at 12 o’clock was a bit of a surprise). No such problems with the NAC 32.5…
So, is there any way of attenuating the NDS output, apart from using in-line attenuators…?
Yes, exactly. Don’t have fine-grain control of the volume, unless I adjust it manually, which defeats the object of getting a remote-control pre-amp. On the NAC 32.5, I have about 240° of usable travel…
I see. To be honest, this is a problem on every remote control amp with a classic potentiometer I’ve used (exception coming further down). Even ones where they had a matching DAC or CD player to go with them. A single tap on the remote is a huge jump in volume. My old Acam’s had that problem. My Luxman has that problem… But my Naim 282 oddly enough doesn’t have the problem if you adjust the volume via the app and have the system automation link cable running from the streamer. Does the 102 have a system automation connection?
Perfectly normal perhaps, but perfectly bad on my view. Even worse if someone has higher efficiency speakers. Given that digital sources have been around since 1980, manufacturers should have perfected low gain inputs long before now.
This is weird… I also have a WiiM Pro that is Connected to the NDS’s DAC. I use it for my server-side playlists, because the Naim app can’t seem to handle them properly. Using the WiiM as the streamer, the initial volume is much, much lower, so I get a much wider usable volume range (through to about 1 o’clock). But since it’s outputting a purely digital stream, should that be a thing…?
@Fatcat Wow. Able to set the WiiM output to 70%, which now gives me the full range of dial movement to control the volume. Is there really no way to do the same thing on the NDS…?