Digital volume via usb dac enigma

[admin_exported]

Am I doing it right?

I have just bought a usb dac. I can change the volume of the music via my computer. I'm confused as I thought you can only change the volume of an analogue signal not a digital one.

It would appear dear friends that either I am wrong in this or I am not using the dac properly.

Which is to be hifi people?

thanks

 

[John Duncan]

Nah, Spotify and iTunes can reduce volume by reducing numbers of bits. So quality goes down, but for convenience it might be worth the trade-off.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh right, so for best quality it's best to have the volume bar up the highest? Is that really true? Surprising.

But then how does that work with VLC on which the volume bar goes up to 200%, it can't add bits can it?