I'm not exactly sure what Meridian does in it's "HyBrid" Volume but it does appear to be some combination of analog and digital.

One hunch is they have 6dB of Analog Attenuation (possibly with a resistor network).

As you step through 6dB you hear nothing on each .5 dB, and then at each 6dB you can hear a click in the speaker output (Silence Playing with it cranked up loud ears to the speakers). It's like it shifted a bit and then brought analog attenuation back to 0 for another 6dB pass.

I don't know if they do the same thing all the way down.

I think there is a sweet spot.

I think part this is some how maintaining high S/N (into the analog amp) and high Dynamic Range (keeping the most significant bits your listening to in the high bits of the DAC) at "normal" listening levels.

I think this is partly why the +3dB trick makes things sound better. It restores this whole "Hybrid Volume" scheme to work as designed in DSP speakers.

I think this scheme was critical for 15 year old DACs (e.g. 14 bit DACs) but I'm not sure it's still needed with modern DACs but Meridian still does it.

- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
HT: G61RSL, 4x5K, 5.5KHC, 2xSC6000, Transporter, HD621, Philips BDP7501 4K, Tivo, 65" LG OLED 4K C6
Computer: Foobar2000, 5K, Mojo, HiFiMan HE1000 V2