[alsa-devel] What does 0dB refer to? (Logitech USB Speakers)

[James Courtier-Dutton]

James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> Florian Faber wrote:
>   
>> On Saturday 12 April 2008 20:14:44 James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> That sounds reasonable for now. Professional sound card users will
>>> maybe just have to remember to mute the master control before
>>> connecting their speakers.
>>>     
>>>       
>> This is very, very dangerous - not only can it harm the equipment, it 
>> can also harm the user. 0dBFS equals >121dB at a distance 2m away from 
>> my head, and I have a *small* setup.
>>
>> To be honest, I think I would then insert a switch in the RME driver 
>> that will enable the outputs only after the RME mixer application has 
>> been started.
>>
>>
>> Flo
>>   
>>     
>
> Thats not very helpful really.
> What value should we set it to then?
> Another alternative could be to leave everything at 0dB except the master.
> For the master we could select say minimum dB + 12.
> So, if the Master ranged from -70 to 0 dB, we would set Master to -70 + 
> 12 = -58dB.
>
> Would that suit everyone better.
>
> James
>
>   
Note this should be set after boot up. All ALSA drivers in the kernel 
should still default to muted. Once the value has been set, it is 
remember over a reboot and changed from the kernel mutes in a boot up 
init.d script.

James