" A re-occurring theme in these integrated units are these digital volume control schemes, usually some kind of electronically-controlled resistor ladder. Even very high-quality units everyone loves like the Esoterics use these. Virtually all solid-state integrated units use these things...from Simaudio, to Esoteric to Marantz to Luxman all the way down to Yamaha. Even the more boutique brands like Musical Fidelity...even Accuphase!
WHY??? Am I just being bigoted against these electronic line stages? Can these really provide the lushness and three-dimentionality you would expect out of a "proper" active class A line stage?"
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I don’t think you know anything about electronics at all. What does an active class A line stage (line level output) have anything to do with the gain being controlled by a resistor ladder circuit?
Class A output (line or phono or power amp level) is basically biasing the amplification device (tube or transistor) such that they are always on, rather than off during the negative cycle of a audio signal.
A resistor ladder circuit introduces combinations of resistors in the audio output signal to reduce or increase the signal magnitude, ie, controls the volume of the signal. It’s not a digital method, it’s purely analog. Another purely analog method is usage of a potentiometer, with does the same thing, but uses a variable resistor instead of discrete resistors...and they degrade the signal and wear out over time, are noisy in general. Another method is to use optical encoders from the knob to control discrete resistors and transistors (like my Ayre K5xeMP, which has one of the best volume controls I have ever encountered, and it’s not even their high end linestage). The digital means of controlling volume is taking a digital signal of high bit depth and trimming the bit depth. It can be lossy or lossless, depending on the method used, and its purely for digital amplifiers and DACs, you wont find that in an analog device.
WHY??? Am I just being bigoted against these electronic line stages? Can these really provide the lushness and three-dimentionality you would expect out of a "proper" active class A line stage?"
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I don’t think you know anything about electronics at all. What does an active class A line stage (line level output) have anything to do with the gain being controlled by a resistor ladder circuit?
Class A output (line or phono or power amp level) is basically biasing the amplification device (tube or transistor) such that they are always on, rather than off during the negative cycle of a audio signal.
A resistor ladder circuit introduces combinations of resistors in the audio output signal to reduce or increase the signal magnitude, ie, controls the volume of the signal. It’s not a digital method, it’s purely analog. Another purely analog method is usage of a potentiometer, with does the same thing, but uses a variable resistor instead of discrete resistors...and they degrade the signal and wear out over time, are noisy in general. Another method is to use optical encoders from the knob to control discrete resistors and transistors (like my Ayre K5xeMP, which has one of the best volume controls I have ever encountered, and it’s not even their high end linestage). The digital means of controlling volume is taking a digital signal of high bit depth and trimming the bit depth. It can be lossy or lossless, depending on the method used, and its purely for digital amplifiers and DACs, you wont find that in an analog device.