It is not a feature that is often overlooked when finding a sound product. The volume wheel works for what it is, doesn't it? Turn the volume up and down, so why bother? The truth is very different, at least if you care about full performance -not just the sound quality- of your speaker or headphones, then we'll explain why.
The difference between analog and digital volume control
Volume control on digital processors, which we often use unless we have the right audio equipment, can be done analog or digital. In other words, it's an analog audio signal can be transmitted via a control cone normal volume such as those with pumps, or can be remedied by performing mathematical operations to digital data representing audio. This is a huge difference between analog or digital.
Analog volume control can slowly damage the signal (no volume wheel is 100% visible on the signal, keep that clear) and you can get in small measurement errors in certain volume settings. For example, when the volume is too low, the left channel can be half dB over the right, even though the situation is almost reversible as the volume rises.
By itself, digital volume control also has its drawbacks. Each of the 6 dB declines from the main configuration, causing us to lose 1 solution. Low volume adjustment (say, 30 dB for attenuation) is equivalent to dumping 5 pieces. So, if we have music at 20 bits in the D / A converter, we will be listening to audio at 15 bits and not 20 bits. The lower the volume adjustment, the greater the quality loss.
In terms of The volume adjustment on the analog wheel is excellent than digital because we will fix it, in fact, manually. In a digital volume wheel, on the other hand, each "tic" correction represents a specific mathematical function that only allows the jump from X to X (depending on the wheel, where X is a minimum dB distance), and does not allow a very good and firmly, it is worth the reduction, as the digital wheels allow.
Of course, "as a distraction," analog wheels only allow for that condition… these wheels. They may be more or less circular in shape, or they may be in the case of a fader (slide bar), but they will always talk about the machine, with a limited start (minimum) and (maximum) end. However, digital wheels enable multiple multiple options, from simple buttons to unlimited wheels (without stopping), through slides and more.
So, is it better for analog or digital digital wheel?
Depending on the quality, as we explained by the difference, the analog volume wheels have lost a bit of quality (closer to zero, in fact, even if we have lost some balance) and allowed better adjustment than the digital, and as a result have better sound quality and better adaptability.
In contrast, digital wheels are very versatile and, nowadays, cheaper to use on devices. In addition, they last much longer, because analogs have mechanical properties, which suffer more in the long run.
Our recommendation? In this case, always analog.
