DAC as an attenuator?

Johsti,

I have digital volume controls on my CD players and I can't hear any difference is SQ at low volume settings either. But if you are worried about over driving a preamp, you may have some global gain settings somewhere on your DAC or CD player. Mine do, but to access them I have to open them up and set some dip switches they give you. Its a very useful feature but quite often people that have these players don't know about it.

thanks for the responses all.

Definitely something to consider to reduce gain at the preamp input. Despite my amps quoted 1V input sensitivity I still find some CD's get 'shouty' at around the 8:30 position on the amp and at that point anything louder becomes unbearable, I have tried experimented with attenuation with my laptop as a source and it definitely helps once that lower part of the volume range is passed, if it doesn't 'shout' by 10 oclock then volume increase after that is much more linear and sounds good.

Correction - Pretend your dac was capable, not cabale, of a SNR of 120 dB after the digital to analog conversion which is equal to approximately 20 bits.