HD3

[Hutch]

Hi,
I’m new here. Quite some time ago I burned my CDs to a hard drive and play music from the PC. It took an age to find a DAC that sounded anything other than awful and I tried a lot. I then, in a moment of madness, bought a HD3 without testing and just based on a recommendation from someone I didn’t even like much. I cannot tell you how much better it was than anything else, so I bought CD for every else as well

However, I now have Windows10 and although the HD3 works, the volume control is only from the laptop and not from the pre-amp.

Does anyone have any idea how I sort this problem out?

Thanks in advance.

[admin]

First, welcome to CJO, great to have you with us.

I may be misunderstanding your problem and not sure why you can't control the volume from the preamp as preamp volume control is not limited by any analog source component (presuming the output from the source is line level). I presume you have the analog outs of the HD3 going into the preamp. That will be a fixed level (ie line level, just like any other source component) and you should be able to adjust the output level from the preamp.

I think support for the HD3 on windows OS was up to Windows 7/Vista officially but I could be wrong. It still should work however. As long as you have output from the HD3 analog connector, the preamp should be able to control that volume. If it can't, the problem is with the preamp.

[roberto]

Hola and welcome,

Reading you, you must have the output of your preamplifier connected wrong, you might have connected the output recording direct to the amplifier. The recording output does not pass through the preamp volume control. I don't know your preamp model, I am assuming that you have two outputs, one that goes to the the amplifier and the other is for recording only. Check this.

Some Conrad Jonson preamplifiers do no have double output volume control. If you need to split the preamplifier volume control signal, you need a Y RCA, one male, two female splitter connector. One for each channel.

[Hutch]

Hi both,
Thanks very much for taking the trouble to reply. I’ve also got a Mac and if I connect that there is no problem at all. However with the Mac organising the music is very awkward.

Sigh!!!

[admin]

Just to be clear, are you controlling the volume with the source (ie computers), or your preamp?

Are you sure there is actually analog output from the HD3 when the source is your Windows machine?

[AnotherJohnson]

Here’s a link to the owners manual.

https://conradjohnson.com/owners-manuals/hd3manual.pdf

It looks straightforward.

It is a line level device into the preamp via the CD or Aux inputs on the preamp. If the preamp is hooked up to the amp, it will control the volume normally.

[Joe Appierto]

When you used your PC laptop before were you on a previous version of Windows such as Windows 7? I'm assuming you were and that it worked then with your laptop. Is that right?

[Hutch]

Hi Joe,
That is correct.

[Joe Appierto]

Okay, so the problem is with the change to Windows 10 from the previous version (7?) that you had and not a physical connection issue.

I'm on Windows 11 and don't use a PC via USB connection to my DAC. I use JRiver and the music files go from my PC wirelessly to the router and then via Ethernet to my DAC (which is a PS Audio).

I'd start by checking Settings>System>Sound and see if something jumps out at you. Because like you said while you are getting music from the laptop Windows 10 is bypassing/overriding the preamp's volume control.

[admin]

In the windows search bar, type in "Device Manager". Start up the Device Manager app, and expand the tabs for:
Audio inputs and outputs
Sound, video, and game controllers
Universal Serial Bus Controllers

Is the HD3 listed in there?

[Hutch]

If I go to Device Manager I see
Microphone (Realtek)
Speakers (HD3)
Speakers (Realtek)
Stereo Mix (Realtek)

Under Sound, video etc
HD3
Intel (R) Display Audio
Realtek(R) Audio

Under Universal Serial Bus
Intel usb3 extension host controller-1 Microsoft
USB composite device
USB root hub (usb3)

Nothing stands out to me: but then, I know very little about this stuff I’m afraid.

[admin]

Good, it's recognized.

I would now go to the right bottom of your taskbar and "right click" on the little speaker symbol, select "Sounds". When the window pops up, select the "Playback" tab. The HD3 should be selected as a default device (and have a check mark on it). If not select it as default.

Try playing music. If you still get no sound, see if the volume meter in the previous playback tab is moving up and down with the music. Report back with the results before we take further steps.

[Hutch]

OK it now seems to be working. The only thing I did was to change to auto play and selected update driver. Not too sure what bit of that worked.

Thank you so much to everyone who so thoughtfully replied. In a world that seems to have gone mad, it’s great to see people are still so kind:)

[admin]

Great! It could have been a couple of things, maybe the software selected output speaker was set to some other device by default. I don't think there are any new driver updates for the HD3 and it just uses a generic USB device driver, so I don't think it was that.

Regardless, glad it's working!

[AnotherJohnson]

Just out of curiosity, what is the preamp?

[Hutch]

Preamp is CJ ET3

[admin]

Preamp is CJ ET3

That's the correct answer.

[Hutch]

The sound from CJ constantly amazes me. Really satisfying, for my tastes anyway.

[AnotherJohnson]

I’m having a hard time visualizing how settings on the laptop affect the volume on the ET3.

Even if the laptop volume was variable, the ET3 volume would still modulate the setting.

[admin]

I’m having a hard time visualizing how settings on the laptop affect the volume on the ET3.

Even if the laptop volume was variable, the ET3 volume would still modulate the setting.

Computers can alter the volume prior to sending it the a USB DAC. Many times you want to make sure that the output volume is set to 100% or on some streamers they label it as "fixed volume." But for best audio quality you want the preamp doing volume adjustments, not the source component.