Question about volume

[Mr Azar]

Basically, when you play music on your PC, is it okay to have the internal (Windows) volume cranked up all the way, or is it best to lower it in order to save your speakers from wearing out sooner?

Are there optimal settings I should be using?

If it helps, I use two speakers and a subwoofer.

[prophetik music]

i generally keep my windows volume at 75%. there's no difference, from a speaker's standpoint, since the volume control adjustment comes before the speaker anyways. but if you blast windows' sound to the max all the time, it'll clip a little coming out of the computer, adding a little distortion to the sound - which is annoying.

keeping windows at 75% generally fixes this issue.

[Flare4War]

i generally keep my windows volume at 75%. there's no difference, from a speaker's standpoint, since the volume control adjustment comes before the speaker anyways. but if you blast windows' sound to the max all the time, it'll clip a little coming out of the computer, adding a little distortion to the sound - which is annoying.

keeping windows at 75% generally fixes this issue.

This is what I do as well.

Especially if you're sending it through a higher quality amp. Might as well let the amp do the cranking.

[Catharsis]

I've heard in the past that if there's a source (like your OS) that has volume adjustments, and an endpoint (like your stereo, or whatever) that has volume adjustments, the source should be around 50%. Then you can adjust the endpoint accordingly. I believe this also comes from a sound engineer friend of mine, if I remember correctly.