[Muffinman]

Well, I don't have any proper arguments against that, assuming the resolution of the output is higher than the input. As for 24/192, well, that's a senseless discussion you would win guaranteed. Seen that discussion too many times, luckily never participated.

But.... let me take another spin on the quality argument: what would you rather have, one or two volume controls? In an old fashioned setup you would have a cd-player and an amplifier. The cd-player would have a line level output, and the amplifier a volume control. The amplifier would have a noise-floor relative to it's output level. However, these days we have user friendly platforms/systems, such as XBMC, with their own volume control. To have the highest user friendliness, you would use XBMC's volume control and set your amplifier (with internal dac and hardware volume control) at a sufficient high volume level. In this modern setup you most likely have more distortion (since your amp is at a higher volume level than it otherwise would have been) and you most definitely have a higher noise floor.

So wouldn't it be better quality with lower distortion, noisefloor, and just one volume control?