According to Claude, the attenuation stage is before the power amp stage. Does that mean worse SNR whether the volume is controlled using the volume control or via the input?
(Ignoring the additional quantization issue with a scaled digital input.)
You could put the attenuation stage after the power amp stage but it would require big beefy resistors that could absorb a lot of power. They'd get hot and the whole thing would be very inefficient.
