Atmashere - you are or course correct in general, but I'm working off the notion that some DACs with higher internal bit depth do volume attenuation without truncation loss. I'm hoping that includes the HD25, but don't have confirmation on that. I'll do some listening this weekend and see if I can notice.
Those Koda and Balabo units are priced right up there!
Those Koda and Balabo units are priced right up there!