Being a sporting chap, Tommaso had me inside the chassis with fool-proof illustrations. It's easy if you know how. The chip on my shoulder proved not to be socketed but soldered albeit just on one end. Lifting its floating end to fully upright broke it clean off without attempting any fine solder extrication surgery. Upon power-on, now the rear-facing blue WiFi indicator was off. So was the telltale brain-leech radiation. Patient. Checked out.

Here's a parting look at the IS-1000's guts and glory. Use another mouse-over loupe function to enlarge it.

14 screws later, I was back on the case. If the weight and exterior slick hadn't yet, this quick exercise drove home just how well this component is built. I was a happy punter without yet any sound.

Once on the shelf beneath a Sony Bravia TV, Gold Note's display became a special attraction. Unlike glossy pixels, its high-contrast matte execution felt ultra modern then was very easy on the eye for crispness and absence of glare. I also appreciated being able to set one of three brightness modes plus off from the luxurious remote. Time for a stroll down Sonic Avenue. In this 2.1 video system, the IS-1000 Deluxe replaced a Simon Audio AIO so 100wpc top-loading CD receiver. Coaxial S/PDIF signal came from an Oppo BDP-105 universal spinner. Speakers were teal Zu Soul VI. I didn't connect the Zu Submission to the pre-out just yet. I had a possibly better idea; exploit Gold Note's rare 50Hz analog boost. Why possibly better? To be truly seamless, speakers good for -3dB/40Hz like the Zu will need a sub's 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley low pass to sit at a very low 24Hz. That's because such a filter's hinge frequency defines by its -6dB point. Delaying instead the speaker's native roll-off by goosing its low-end response could be more seamless. The cost would be loss of the sub's 20Hz reach. That simply incurs 3ms latency enforced by our diagonal setup's default corner position for any tall subwoofer. Which scheme worked better?

The bone-colored stump behind the TV is the top of the Submission subwoofer. Against the off-white walls, it does rather disappear.

Wrong choice of words. Better suggests invariable objectivity. This was about preference. The sub could go lower. But it also drew attention as an add-on. Its presence registered. Gold Note's analog boost did not. You'd only tell its contributions in defeat. The Soul VI will sound a bit leaner and lighter down low. Because I prioritize textural continuousness over any last words on infrasonic reach, going sub-less was better. Nonetheless it's more correct to call it personal preference. That's how these cookies crumble. The intended takeaway is a tip of the hat at this feature's usefulness. It's anathema to purists who pale at the idea of manipulating the recorded signal in any way. It's a boon to pragmatists who can turn it on/off at will, select two different potencies and acknowledge that this scheme is far more surgical, predictive and simple than monkeying around with cables and signal conditioners to get anywhere near the same results. In my book then, Gold Note's booster was all sun no shadow.