Do I need a separate pre-amp in my stereo system if running all my sources through the Wiim Ultra? This has been touched on several times in this thread, but wanted to make sure I am understanding things correctly. My chain is the Wiim Ultra --> Denon AVR --> Linkwitz Orion speaker system (powered by analog crossover and Rotel 1048 8ch amp with 1V input sensitivity). Since I'm not using the Denon AVR for anything but volume control, I'd like to remove it from the chain.
It sounds like I could simply connect the Ultra directly to the analog crossover / Rotel and limit the output to 1V in the settings. Different people have different opinions on the efficacy of using the Ultra's digital volume control in terms of sound quality, but the view on this forum is that the digital volume control is fine. That aside, I do have concerns about one day running into a software bug that causes full volume to be input into my Orions.
So wondering if perhaps something like a Schiit Sys would do the trick or whether a full-on preamp that can buffer the output signal is needed.
Thanks all.