External DAC sound card volume adjustment not working

[gerijani]

Describe your issue

If I attach to USB my SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC, there is no volume adjustment possible to the two outputs

Steps to reproduce

Just starting the app and attached the device.

What was the expected result?

No response

Put here any screenshots or videos (optional)

Platform

macOS

Application version

26.5.6 (17)

Operating system (name + version)

Tahoe 26.3.1 (a) (25D771280a)

[rokartur]

Tell me, do you also not have a slider in the Audio MIDI Setup app, and can you only mute it?

[gerijani]

Is that what you meant?

Nothing on Chat nor on Game stream endpoint
With other app it's not happening

[rokartur]

Is that what you meant?

Yes, and I'll explain why that is.

SoundSource works by detecting all your connected devices and routing everything to a Virtual Device, which processes the audio. You use the SoundSource app to control the volume, filters, and other features. So when you adjust the volume with the slider, you’re actually controlling the volume for that Virtual Device, not the physical device you’ve connected.

BetterAudio works the same way as the Audio MIDI Setup app and controlling the volume of external monitors using DDC. So you’re specifically controlling the connected physical device (if it allows volume control). GameDAC doesn’t support native volume control, which is why you don’t see a volume slider in BetterAudio or Audio MIDI Setup.

For GameDAC to work in BetterAudio, I would have to write a separate implementation to support this device, just as I did for DDC monitors.

[patrickrushton]

Same problem with my Focusrite Scarlett USB audio interface. This doesn't support volume control in its macOS driver (only on the front-panel physical knob) so I'd hoped BetterAudio would provide global volume control like Soundsource (Super Volume Keys) and Finetune where the volume is attenuated in software before reaching the output.