Using the WiiM pro as a pre-amp only?

[cdg]

Can you tell me if it's possible to pass through a digital signal from my digital transport through the inputs of the WiiM pro - digitally control the volume - then pass the attenuated digital signal on to my own separates DAC please?

Neither my transport (Marantz NA7004) - DAC (Metrum Octave II) - or amplifier (Croft) have any form of volume control.

Thanks.

 

[Wiimer]

Can you tell me if it's possible to pass through a digital signal from my digital transport through the inputs of the WiiM pro - digitally control the volume - then pass the attenuated digital signal on to my own separates DAC please?

Neither my transport (Marantz NA7004) - DAC (Metrum Octave II) - or amplifier (Croft) have any form of volume control.

Thanks.

Yes. Use WiiM's Optical input and spdif out.

 

[Balthazar B]

Yes. Use WiiM's Optical input and spdif out.

At the cost of bit-perfect playback, of course, meaning degraded content that can't be corrected. @cdg, you're apt to get a better result inserting one of these downstream from your external DAC: https://www.schiit.com/products/sys. Or feed the WiiM to a preamp like this if you desire both volume control and source/destination switching: https://www.schiit.com/products/saga-s.

 

[Wiimer]

At the cost of bit-perfect playback, of course, meaning degraded content that can't be corrected. @cdg, you're apt to get a better result inserting one of these downstream from your external DAC: https://www.schiit.com/products/sys. Or feed the WiiM to a preamp like this if you desire both volume control and source/destination switching: https://www.schiit.com/products/saga-s.

The loss when lowering the volume on the WiiM pro is as follows.
Compared to using an analog preamplifier and increasing the number of contacts, we do not know which loss is greater.

Fixed: -141.8dB THD+N
~75%: -138.2dB THD+N
~50%: -131.5dB THD+N
~25%: -115.5dB THD+N
~10%: -99.6dB THD+N

 

[cdg]

At the cost of bit-perfect playback, of course, meaning degraded content that can't be corrected. @cdg, you're apt to get a better result inserting one of these downstream from your external DAC: https://www.schiit.com/products/sys. Or feed the WiiM to a preamp like this if you desire both volume control and source/destination switching: https://www.schiit.com/products/saga-s.

Thanks - I like the sound of my existing pre-amp (Croft) and what flavor it brings to the music - I just wanted some 'digital' attenuation now and then to conveniently touch it down a few dB. The Croft pre-amp will be set to as loud as I am ever likely to listen to the music - with the WiiM ahead of it allowing me the convenience to touch down the volume in the digital domain by the comfort of my chair.

I could try the WiiM directly into the power amps - but for now I dare not!

I am hoping a bit of digital attenuation as this level will be transparent.