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Hi,
Please excuse me for this very strange question.
Can i ask about the quality and feel of the volume control on the SHD?
I ask because on some consumer hifi equipment, the volume control feels a bit cheap when you turn it, while on highend hifi, when you turn the volume control, it feels very solid, like it runs in ballbarings.........
For me, the sound is of course very important in a hifi system, but it is also a small daily treat to operate equipment that feels highquality.
Again sorry fot this strange question.

Hi.

Good Question. I wondered the same... Its nice when a product feels like its higher end than regular gear.

Good news here is that the SHD Studio feels solid, with excellent fit and finish to the casework. Its more substantial than I expected. The display is very good and clear. Well executed readout and digits...( except there is no dim or off feature ?! ) And sounds-wise this device is totally transparent in the signal chain...I listen at anywhere from -50 to -30 and I am happy to report (prior to testing Dirac etc) that the function as a digital attenuator is flawless.

On to your question... The knob employed seems to be aluminum. It feels solid, not plasticy. The encoder that it operates is a "push" as well as a "turn"... So you push for selections, and turn for scrolling. While turning you feel slight detents. The encoder feels quality enough, but other firms like SimAudio may have some edge here...

The actual shortcoming, if there were one, is that the whole unit sits too low to the desk or table to actually use the volume control properly. you can only really run your finger across the top of it, because there isnt enough clearance to the surface below. Design wise this looks great, and keeps the casework costs to a minimum, but if you like to manually twist the dial you will be surprised at this choice.

Personally, I plan to elevate my unit with some sort of footer or isolation device... and at that time Im considering the possibility of adding a larger knob, that would really make the SHD stand out... like this:

theaudiophileman.com/wp-content/uploads/...1-27-at-17.07.45.jpg

Hi SteveMiller,
Thank you very much for your detailed description, very important that the knob feels like alluminium!......and that the feel when you turn it......feels hmmmmm...highend.....difficult to explain....
I seriosly consider to buy the SHD to feed wonderfull music to my two new Advance Acoustic X-A220 mono block amps......i have also looked at Lyngdorf, but used instrad of new, i want the room correction in what ever new pre-amp i am going to buy.

It's an encoder so has no mechanical damping like some pots (if that's what you're asking about). It doesn't feel as loose as some I've had. There is some movement in the shaft, I wouldn't put a larger knob on it.

I once had a [cough] high end headphone amp that had a massive aluminium knob recessed into a massive aluminium faceplate, attached to a stepped attenuator. Unfortunately they had set up the resistor ladder so that the first half of rotation was most of the control range. I couldn't believe it when I actually measured it, so calculated a new set of resistor values for it, but decided to just sell it instead of fix it.

Thank you for the answer John.

The enclosure on the SHD is thicker than usual, giving it a heavy, solid feel.
The front rotary knob is solid metal with a nylon bushing that fits on the rotary encoder.