You can adjust the your speaker volume in-app, operating system-wide, or by the physical controls on your speaker setup. Which method is best for optimum sound?

您可以在应用内，整个操作系统范围内或通过扬声器设置上的物理控件来调整扬声器音量。 哪种方法最适合获得最佳声音？

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites.

今天的问答环节由SuperUser提供，它是Stack Exchange的一个分支，它是Q＆A网站的社区推动组织。

问题 (The Question)

SuperUser reader Qqwy poses the following question:

超级用户阅读器Qqwy提出以下问题：

If music isn’t loud enough, how do I get the best quality (even if the difference is in fact so small it’s negligible)?

如果音乐不够响亮，我如何获得最佳质量(即使差异实际上很小，可以忽略不计)？

• By making the music louder in my music player, game or other sound-producing software program?通过在音乐播放器，游戏或其他产生声音的软件程序中使音乐声音更大？
• By raising the volume at the operating system level (for instance, by clicking the speaker icon in the Windows notification area and turning the volume up)?通过在操作系统级别提高音量(例如，通过单击Windows通知区域中的扬声器图标并调高音量)？
• By turning the volume up on the amplifier or speakers that are attached to your computer, and thus changing the volume on the hardware?通过调高与计算机相连的放大器或扬声器的音量，从而改变硬件的音量？

Does programs vs. OS matter? Does software vs. hardware matter?

程序与操作系统是否重要？ 软件与硬件有关系吗？

Let’s get to the bottom of things: is it better to crank up the volume at the speaker or within your computer’s settings?

让我们深入探究一下：在扬声器上或在计算机设置内提高音量是否更好？

答案 (The Answer)

SuperUser contributor Indrek jumps in with a definitive answer to the question:

超级用户贡献者Indrek提出了以下问题的明确答案：

Program vs. OS generally doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you’re adjusting volume in software or in hardware.

程序与操作系统通常无关紧要。 重要的是您要调整软件音量还是硬件音量。

Reducing volume in software is basically equivalent to reducing the bit depth. In digital audio, the signal is split up into distinct samples (taken thousands of times per second), and bit depth is the number of bits that are used to describe each sample. Attenuating a signal is done by multiplying each sample by a number less than one, with the result being that you’re no longer using the full resolution to describe the audio, resulting in reduced dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio. Specifically, every 6 dB of attenuation is equivalent to reducing the bit depth by one. If you started with, say, 16-bit audio (standard for audio CDs) and reduced the volume by 12 dB, you’d effectively be listening to 14-bit audio instead. Turn the volume down too much and quality will start to suffer noticeably.

减少软件体积基本上等同于减少位深度。 在数字音频中，信号被分解为不同的样本(每秒采集数千次)，位深度是用于描述每个样本的位数。 通过将每个样本乘以小于一个的数字来完成信号衰减，结果是您不再使用全分辨率来描述音频，从而降低了动态范围和信噪比。 具体而言，每6 dB的衰减等效于将位深度减小1。 例如，如果您以16位音频(音频CD的标准配置)开始并且将音量降低了12 dB，则实际上是在收听14位音频。 调低音量太多，质量将开始明显下降。

Another issue is that these calculations will often result in rounding errors, due to the original value of the sample not being a multiple of the factor by which you’re dividing the samples. This further degrades the audio quality by introducing what’s basically quantisation noise. Again, this mostly happens at lower volume levels. Different programs might use slightly different algorithms for attenuating the signal and resolving those rounding errors, which means there might be some difference in the resulting audible signal between, say, an audio player and the OS, but that doesn’t change the fact that in all cases you’re still reducing bit depth and essentially wasting a portion of the bandwidth on transmitting zeroes instead of useful information.

另一个问题是，这些计算通常会导致舍入误差，这是因为样本的原始值不是您将样本除以的因子的倍数。 通过引入基本的量化噪声，这进一步降低了音频质量。 同样，这主要发生在较低的音量级别。 不同的程序可能会使用略有不同的算法来衰减信号并解决舍入误差，这意味着音频播放器和OS之间的可听信号可能会有所不同，但这并不会改变以下事实：在所有情况下，您仍在降低位深度，并且实际上浪费了一部分带宽来传输零位，而不是有用的信息。

This PDF has more information and some excellent illustrations if you’re interested in learning more.

如果您有兴趣了解更多信息， 此PDF包含更多信息和一些出色的插图。

The result of reducing the volume in hardware depends on how the volume control is implemented. If it’s digital, then the effect is much the same as reducing the volume in software, so there’s probably little to no difference in which one you use, in terms of audio quality.

减少硬件音量的结果取决于音量控制的实现方式。 如果是数字的，则效果与减小软件的体积几乎相同，因此就音频质量而言，使用哪种软件可能几乎没有差别。

Ideally, you should output audio from your computer at full volume, so as to get the highest resolution (bit depth) possible, and then have an analogue volume control as one of the last things in front of the speakers. Assuming all the devices in your signal path are of more or less comparable quality (i.e. you’re not pairing a cheap low-end amplifier with a high-end digital source and DAC), that should give the best audio quality.

理想情况下，您应该以最大音量从计算机输出音频，以便获得尽可能高的分辨率(位深度)，然后将模拟音量控制作为扬声器前面的最后一项操作。 假设您信号路径中的所有设备或多或少具有可比的质量(即，您没有将廉价的低端放大器与高端数字源和DAC配对)，则应提供最佳的音频质量。

@Joren posted a good question in the comments:

@Joren在评论中发布了一个很好的问题：

So if I want to set software volume control to max, how do I deal with my analog controls suddenly having a super tiny usable range? (Because even turning the analog volume to half is way too loud.)

因此，如果我想将软件音量控制设置为最大，我该如何处理我的模拟控制突然具有很小的可用范围？ (因为即使将模拟音量调到一半也太大了。)

This can be a problem when the volume control is part of an amplifier, which is probably the case with most computer setups. Since an amplifier’s job is to, as the name suggests, amplify, this means that the volume control’s gain ranges from 0 to more than 1 (often much more), and by the time you’ve turned the volume control to the halfway point, you’re probably no longer attenuating, but actually amplifying the signal beyond the levels you set in software.

当音量控制是放大器的一部分时，这可能是一个问题，大多数计算机设置可能都是这种情况。 顾名思义，由于放大器的工作是放大，因此这意味着音量控制的增益范围是0到大于1(通常是更大)，并且当您将音量控制转到中点时，您可能不再衰减，而是实际上将信号放大到您在软件中设置的水平。

There’s a couple of solutions to this:

有两种解决方案：

• Get a passive attenuator. Since it doesn’t amplify the signal, its gain ranges from 0 to 1, which gives you a much larger usable range.获取一个无源衰减器。 由于它不会放大信号，因此其增益范围为0到1，这为您提供了更大的可用范围。
• Have two analogue volume controls. If your power amplifier or speakers have a volume or input trim control, that will work great. Use that to set a master volume level so that your regular volume control’s usable range is maximised.有两个模拟音量控件。 如果您的功率放大器或扬声器具有音量或输入调整控件，则效果很好。 使用它来设置主音量级别，以便最大程度地提高常规音量控件的可用范围。
• If the previous two aren’t possible or feasible, simply turn down the volume at the OS level, until you’ve reached the best compromise between the usable range on the analogue volume control and audio quality. Keep individual programs at 100% so as to avoid several bit depth reductions in a row. Hopefully there won’t be a noticeable loss in audio quality. Or if there is, then I’d probably start looking at getting a new amplifier that doesn’t have as sensitive inputs, or better yet, has a way to adjust input gain.如果前两个不可能或不可行，只需在操作系统级别调低音量，直到在模拟音量控制的可用范围和音频质量之间达到最佳平衡。 保持单个程序为100％，以避免连续减少多个位深度。 希望不会有明显的音频质量损失。 或者，如果有的话，我可能会开始寻找一种新的放大器，它没有敏感的输入，或者更好的是，它可以调整输入增益。

@Lyman Enders Knowles pointed out in the comments that the issue of bit depth reduction does not apply to modern operating systems. Specifically, starting with Vista, Windows automatically upsamples all audio streams to 32-bit floating point before doing any attenuation. This means that, however low you turn the volume, there should be no effective loss of resolution. Still, eventually the audio has to be downconverted (to 16-bit, or 24-bit if the DAC supports that), which will introduce some quantisation errors. Also, attenuating first and amplifying later will increase the noise floor, so the advice to keep software levels at 100% and attenuate in hardware, as close to the end of your audio chain as possible, still stands.

@Lyman Enders Knowles在评论中指出，降低位深度的问题不适用于现代操作系统。 具体来说，从Vista开始，Windows在进行任何衰减之前会自动将所有音频流升采样到32位浮点。 这意味着，无论您将音量调得多么低，都不应有任何有效的分辨率损失。 尽管如此，最终还是必须将音频下变频(转换为16位，如果DAC支持，则转换为24位)，这会带来一些量化误差。 同样，先衰减然后再放大会增加本底噪声，因此仍然建议保持软件电平在100％并在硬件中衰减(尽可能靠近音频链的末端)。

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.

有什么补充说明吗？ 在评论中听起来不对。 是否想从其他精通Stack Exchange的用户那里获得更多答案？ 在此处查看完整的讨论线程 。

翻译自: https://www.howtogeek.com/130353/should-i-adjust-the-volume-by-software-or-hardware/