Very high output level in VS-100 from X1

This may be a really dumb question, but there is a big difference in output levels between X1 and my new toy, a VS-100...
 
I was previously running with a UA-25 and never gave levels a thought, just keep the peak lights off in X1 and don't exceed 0dB and life is good..
 
Now with the VS-100, mixes that peak just below 0dB in X1 are indicating over on the DAW level indicators on the VS-100 and I have to lower the playback level right down to avoid over driving my speakers (Edirol MA-7A's), thus setting the output level way lower than the DAW level.
 
Is there some setting, either in X1 or in the VS-100 that needs to be changed to get the levels to match?  I would have expected that having the playback level knob in the 'U' middle setting should output the same level as Sonar, which assuming everything is below 0dB should be fine for driving my speakers...
 
Any ideas folks..
 

Further to my post above, how did you connect the UA-25 output?
If you used RCA or standard 1/4", that is only -2db, and would explain the big difference to the +4db of the VS-100.

With the UA-25, you could only get the Pro Level (+4) with low impedence TRS output.

I've used the VS-100 for a little more than a year now, but I have never really trusted it's metering. I really just use it as a "yeah - it's getting signal" type indicator

Generally I just rely on the levels/metering within Sonar, and turn up/down the Playback volume accordingly on the VS-100. You raise an interesting question though, something I might look into a little more.

The big question is whether the VS100's meters are showing analog output level to the monitors, or digital input level from SONAR via the interface driver.

If you're talking about digital signal levels, the difference in analog line levels doesn't come into play. So long as the two devices are working at the same bit-depth, they should read about the same, notwithstanding the latency and hysteresis of the translation from digital signal to analog metering in the VS-100.

The one place where the digital signal level can be altered between the two is the Main Out strip in the Console view that represents the output port from SONAR to the VS-100, if it's set higher than 0dB, the VS will read higher than the Master bus in SONAR. Depending on how your Console view is set up, you may have to drag the pane divider to the right of the Bus pane back in order to see the Main Out strip. The Console strips for Interface output ports have orange labels.

If the Main Out strip is set at 0dB, I would presume the VS is showing Output level, and there must be gain in the hardware/firmware somewhere.

OK - had some time to play..
 
In terms of the meters, it seems that the meters on the VS-100 show peak levels at -6dB when compared to the meters in X1 (which show peak at 0dB), which seems a little odd, but guess that is the design... I don't really have anything else to compare it with to know if that is normal..   I do know that my old UA-25 used to activate its limiter several dB below zero, but I never acurately measured when it kicked in..
 
Kevin
 
 

Depends on which way you look at it..
 
For inputs, something indicating peak on the VS-100 is at -6dB in Sonar..
 
For outputs, a mix peaking just below 0dB in Sonar indicates peak / over on the VS-100...  even the metronome at -3dB indicates over..
 
From more structured testing, the difference is 6dB, a sinewave in Sonar @ -6dB indicates peak on the VS-100, one at -6.1 dB does not (for outputs)
 
Yes, we have drifted a little off topic from the opening post, but I was just trying to understand what the meters on the VS-100 were telling me and when I saw the peak / over indication on the output meters on the VS-100 for a mix that was just under 0dB in Sonar I kind of came to the conclusion that somehow the level in the VS-100 was amplified, but I guess that isn't the case, they just show different levels...   It would nice to have this kind of stuff documented in the manuals, but there is no indication at all as to what the peak indication is showing on the VS-100 in terms of dB...