Using CD player without Preamp?

Kr4...There you said it!! "If the VC is digital (and, therefore, loses data when attenuated)...". Maybe you could explain how data is lost. It doesn't have to be so.

If the data was left shifted the LSB would indeed be lost, but the remaining bits would be worth half their original voltage, and no digital volume control I have heard has steps that large.

Shadorne...Left shifting a digital word, be it 16 or 24 bits, is a divide by two. Quanta size will be doubled. We are talking about "truncation" not "rounding".

I have no doubt that representing audio with 5 bits will sound rotten, and dither won't really help. My point is simply that the volume control of a CD player can be implemented in ways other than left shifting (or "dropping bits" as some like to say). The gain of the analog output circuitry can be changed under digital control.

Shadorne...That's what I supposed about "digital" volume controls. Thanks for the details. It is no coincidence that they all seem to have the same 1/2 dB resolution.

I just got my McCormack MAP-1 6 channel preamp back from repair. (Kudos to CJ which now owns McCormack. No charge, even shipping).
My problem was no output from the center channel, and the fix was to replace the Center/Subwoofer volume control IC.