Many of the universal players available today are as good as a one
piece solution gets. Spending much over a thousand dollars is a total
waste. An outboard DAC can bbe beneficial, especially if it can drive a
power amp directly without the added unnecessary overhead of a preamp.

A better-executed version of the Njoe Tjoeb concept with a good
precision attenuator (yes, you can do volume control in the digital
domain, but few do it properly-an oops can blast you with full output
inadvertently with most designs) actuated manually, a stepper or both,
is the obvious thing no one wants to do.

Putting an attenuator on the power amp, making it in effect a line
stage integrated, also works-but not as well sometimes, and limits your
amp choices.