Anjowin,
I run my Oppo 105 direct to my class D amp via its 'Dedicated Stereo' xlr outputs. Prior to the 105, I used a tubed VTL 2.5 preamp with NOS Mullard tubes. The sound of the class D amp with the tube pre was excellent for music and never thought I'd take it out of my system.
However, I was forced to remove it while I sent it for repairs. I thought the tubes were giving me the touch of warmth and bloom on my favorite music cds. But, to my surprise, my favorite cds sounded just as sweet without the VTL.
I cannot recommend the Oppo 105 highly enough. Mine has turned into my 'master source' component for both 2-ch music and multi-ch ht listening. The 105 is even user configurable so that it plays stereo cds in 2-ch (either with or without sub contribution) and Bluray discs in multi-ch mode automatically, with no system switching necessary. It also serves as an excellent preamp and surround processor/decoder. So, I have eliminated my Parasound AV2500 processor from the signal chain, along with the VTL.
But your question was about the efficacy of the Oppo's remote volume control. Again, Oppo has you covered; the digital volume control actually operates using 32 bit processing to make sure no audio information is lost or negatively affected. This gives you an extra 18 bits to work with on cds and 8 bits on hi-res 24 bit/96 or 192 kHz music files. I've been using the remote volume control on the Oppo for months now and have nocomplaints. It has worked flawlessly and everything is very low noise.
Hope this helps,
Tim
