Low Volume = noise, but not on web-radio ??(SOLVED)

[TommyBoy]

I tried this on two systems, with different I2S sound card, same result as explained :

play 16bit 44kHz wav file.
low volume like 5%
turn up audio amp to max, now there is digital sounding noise on the music.
WHY ??
solution ??

next experiment, hit pause.. SILENCE as the grave

then play a web radio, same volume 5% and audio system maxed, now all the funny noise is GONE !!
WHY ??

the difference as I see it :
web radio is less resolution, both in bits and rate.
wav file is from usb interface, can that cause noise ?
wav file is higher resolution, how can that change the noise at low volume ?

how is volume made ?
---------------------
after word : I solved this problem by not using digital volume at all, at 100% the player dont add noise at all, no matter what material it play.
BUT my friend uses ultra insane high end amplifiers with no volume knobs at all, so he need the runeaudio volume to work
with no noise added, so please help solve this.

[hondagx35]

[TommyBoy]

more info to add :
SOFTWARE volume is used, since hardware volume dont work.
PIFI v1 with PCM5102 DAC chip.

my friend is using a PIFI v2 with PCM5122 DAC chip, i dont know yet, if this board/dac support hardware volume or not.
or if runeaudio can controll this chip via I2C or what ever ??

>An I2S DAC with hardware volume (like HifiBerry DAC+) should do the trick.

if this problem is software volume ?? why does it work perfectly fine with web radio as explained ???
and with software volume ??

can any one try to repeat the experiments ??
web radio versus wav file, software volume ? noise..

[hondagx35]

[TommyBoy]

you are right (as usual) the pifi 2 with PCM5122 do really support hardware volume,
and with this turned on, all noise problems are GONE, so my friend is one happy camper.

He just called and repported one other strange finding, with software volume turned on,
he tested a song in 24 bit, 88 kHz , in this mode, the noise problem is also gone
and also in web radio as we said before.. so this way I come back to my point :
there is a bit funny things going on with the software volume.
and number 2 point : dont use software volume, if you got a volume knob on your amplifier

[TommyBoy]

we have a new problem with Hardware Volume,
Frank maybe you can help here ?
can we configure the min and max value ?
at 100% it gives out quite a bit too much !!
and at 35% and under, no audio at all.

any quick/easy solutions here ?

[hondagx35]

Hi,

this is a known problem (post18588.html) but no solution yet.

Frank

[TommyBoy]

oh, just too bad, not even a way to Lock min - max ?
well i think i just add a few resistors, to attenuate the max then,
this way his amplifier can not blow up his speakers if 100% is chosen by mistake.

[hondagx35]

[TommyBoy]

thanks for the suggestion about alsamixer,
what is it ?
how do I access it ?
how do I configure it ?