Ok, just a little update on the above... As the unit has effectively been changed from a series to a shunt type (as it sounds markedly better that way), so that the signal, at any position on the dials, now only goes through one resistor in each channel, the value of those two resistors, as well as their inherent quality, is therefore critical.

In that respect, it's been rather interesting playing around with those resistor values (initially using inexpensive but decent quality metal-film types), in order to tailor the gain structure of my system to the volume levels available, at various positions on the controls of the Goldpoint, where it became obvious that the 50K value of the resistors originally fitted on the stepped attenuators were the reason for why I wasn't getting enough volume available on the early steps [e.g, 0-8 was virtually silent]...

Therefore, changing the value of the two resistors, initially to 10k, completely cured that problem, but made it too loud, so we changed them to 22K, which was just about right, but not quite, so I've now settled on 20K, which is perfect. It now means that normal listening levels, for me, occur at the 8 to 9 o'clock positions on the dials, and not the 11 to noon positions previously, which I found unnatural and somewhat counter-intuitive.

What this means now is that there is an opportunity to experiment with some 'audiophile quality' 20K resistors, and to that end I'm going to order from Hi-Fi Collective two each of the following:

Charcroft Z-Foils, AudioNote Tantalum (non-magnetics), Caddocks, PRPs, and for something a bit different, Amtrans AMRG carbon films, just to see what carbon sounds like compared with metal... All will be either 1 or 2W versions. You can read all about the various resistor types here: http://www.hificollective.co.uk/catalog/-c-61_62.html

The resistor 'bake-off' will be taking place on Tuesday this week, and the results of that will be posted here later on that evening, so it'll be very interesting hearing what happens and what turns out to be the winner!!

Marco.