[zettelsm]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Ivan
It is nice to have that option so we don't have such a small window on the volume control work with. As you know not all manufacturers offer this feature.

D'Agostino caters to those who prefer a lower overall gain by providing low gain and higher gain settings, easily accessed via the front panel buttons. I'm using the lower gain HD setting as well as the 2V setting from my Vivaldi.

They also incorporated a user-selectable option to turn off the front panel lights after fifteen seconds. I like to listen in a darkened room, so this was a nice bonus for me.

The gain contour of the volume control was revamped to allow finer control in the middle of the range and the tone controls were also upgraded allowing more range. I haven't tried them out yet but I know I have some recordings that might benefit from a bit more low end or some additional sparkle up top.

All this before we even start talking about the completely new high-impedance input stage, bigger power supply and higher voltage output stage.

Though the HD upgrade was hardly inexpensive, considering the overall price of a new HD, the significant bump in audio quality and the new features incorporated I think it is fair value for the money spent.

Steve