Hi Dawgcatching
as you state you are looking at a line stage are we to assume you are not intending to use a turntable,if so and if your cd player or other source component has sufficient gain you could use a passive volume control,some realy reasonably priced passives have shown up recently on audiogon leaving you free to pick your power amp of choice.if you only have one source you could always fit an inboard pair of attenuaters in that source box if there is room or outboard[not so elegant].It is always best to buy components you would wish to use for a long time,regardless of their place in the audio chain.crap is crap and will be audible no matter where you choose to install it.
as you state you are looking at a line stage are we to assume you are not intending to use a turntable,if so and if your cd player or other source component has sufficient gain you could use a passive volume control,some realy reasonably priced passives have shown up recently on audiogon leaving you free to pick your power amp of choice.if you only have one source you could always fit an inboard pair of attenuaters in that source box if there is room or outboard[not so elegant].It is always best to buy components you would wish to use for a long time,regardless of their place in the audio chain.crap is crap and will be audible no matter where you choose to install it.