HiFi question – What volume level on a pre-amp?

I know there are a few on here that know a bit about hifi.

Just bought a Wiim Ultra.

I previously had a Wiim Pro going through a DAC to an integrated amplifier, so it was a fixed line level output.

The Wiim Ultra, which is a rather lovely thing for less than £350 and it’s own DAC is easily as good as my old DAC, is also a pre amp.

My question is, what volume level should I have the pre amp at?

Is better for the pre amp to be working harder or for the power amp end to be doing the harder work?

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Are you connecting the Wiim Ultra to your amp using the RCA cables?, if so then have it at max output/volume and attenuate to the desired volume with your amp.

The dac chip in the Wiim Ultra will output best signal to noise at the full 2v output, there may be an option in the menu to output a line level, I’ll have a look at the specs/user manual

Had a look, I’d set it at 100 using “fixed volume output”,

Fixed volume output – Select to fix the volume at 100 on WiiM, so you can control the volume on your preferred device or music streaming app

Line out level – Select the preferred Vrms for your speaker or headphone

Can you adjust the volume level on your power amp then, that’s unusual.

It’s an integrated not a pure power amp.

@somafunk will running at 100% not cause any “strain” on it?

@somafunk will running at 100% not cause any “strain” on it?

No, that’s not how gain/volume control works – it’s always outputting at 100% – when you adjust the gain/volume knob you are attenuating the signal. Think of it as turning a tap to decrease or increase the flow of water, the water pressure in the pipes never changes.

I think it’s just a question of being sensible with both volume knobs and finding a balance – if it sounds fuzzy/distorted etc, back it off a bit.

It should be pretty obvious from some sort of deteriation of sound quality if there’s a problem…

I think it’s just a question of being sensible with both volume knobs and finding a balance – if it sounds fuzzy/distorted etc, back it off a bit.

It should be pretty obvious from some sort of deteriation of sound quality if there’s a problem…

That’s not correct, the Wiim Ultra outputs 2V RMS (at fixed volume output as I mentioned above) this is what you should use from your Ultra’s RCA outputs into the integrated amplifier, the integrated amplifier RCA inputs are designed to be used with an input of 2V RMS signal

what somafunk said for best SN ratio

But it you can’t hear it …. ?

Found the options for the Ultra’s line level outputs, if the “fixed volume output set at 100” does not give you low enough attenuation/volume control on your amp then try using the line level choices as below, start with 2 Vrms and if more volume control is needed then drop it down to 1 Vrms

edit : what’s recently gone wrong with this site for posting pics from my Flickr account on here?, I’ve posted pics for years without issues until recently?

edit x 2 : fixed,  uploading from Flickr has changed from using BBcode to using Embed code

@somafunk Thanks for all the advice.

The line out level level is at 2 VRMS and control is fine.