volume adjustment

[aneesh kalra]

What is the difference between adjusting the volume through the media player and adjusting it through the volume control knob on your speakers.Which is more prefferable max o volume on speakers or media player.

[Sukhdeep Singh]

One is System Wide Volume Setting
Other is Media Player Limited Volume Setting

[Kiran.dks]

Originally Posted by aneesh kalra

What is the difference between adjusting the volume through the media player and adjusting it through the volume control knob on your speakers.Which is more prefferable max o volume on speakers or media player.

Media Player Volume controls the volume to your headphone/speaker port. This is nothing but input signal strength to the Speakers. I suggest you to keep the volume in Media Player to around 60%. Too much high Volume as a input to Speaker may create distorted sound (like Distorting Bass or Treble). Then adjust the knob in the speaker to your desired volume.

[aneesh kalra]

Yes but can you also tell how input signal amplification done by the soundcard differs from that done by the speaker's amplifier because like if I have a better sound card would improve the volume i.e quantity or its quality.

[nishant_nms]

^^A better soundcard will cause better quality sound

[shantanu]

media player controls the sound output provided to it by sound card driver, but the vol. control is the master control for hardware sound generation..

[Kiran.dks]

Originally Posted by aneesh kalra

Yes but can you also tell how input signal amplification done by the soundcard differs from that done by the speaker's amplifier because like if I have a better sound card would improve the volume i.e quantity or its quality.

One can't compare the amplication of a preamplifier (sound card in this scenario) with that of Amplifier (Hi-Fi set). External Speaker system's amplifier is a power house generating high outputs. This output quality depends upon input signal quality and it's amplifier board.
There is a threshold limit of its input signal strength. Beyond this strength, the quality decreases and you end up getting distorted sound. Sometimes it may damage IC's in the amplifier. Preamplification signal strength should be at optimum level, generally 60-70% range.