“We're like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.”
Like most things, there is licorice and then there is fine licorice.
ct - It is the DSP feature of volume control that virtually all of these players force your data to be processed through. I think it's just easier for them to set 0dB for DSP code than to bypass it. Also, it takes yet another knob in the GUI to bypass it. Maybe they are afraid that some users will inadvertently set this knob and blow up their speakers, even though the volume control is set to low. Liability...
Steve N.Empirical Audio