I am just curious (and don't know much about HiFi): How exactly does the hardware volume control work? When I reduce the volume by 50%, is the least significant bit essentially dropped? Or can I still hear the lowest volumes, but the high volumes are lowered (I think this would be called "dynamic compression")?
As an example: Assume that I have a track that has a simple sinus wave, alternating between a very low volume (barely audible), and a very high volume. When I lower the volume, would the low-volume part of the track be lost entirely?
Would one method of volume control be preferable over the other?
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HiFiBerry team Simply said, the least significant bits are dropped (it is a bit more complex within the chip as it works with an internal DSP)
While the card by itself supports dynamic compression, our drivers does not support this yet.
Dynamic compression is not really a volume control. It is used in environment where there is loud noise (making everything louder) or it should be relatively quiet (often called "night mode"). A volume control reduces the volume of loud and silent passages by the same amount.
A dynamic compression is never designed to be used as a volume control.
I hope this clarifies things a bit.
Best regards
Daniel
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