Touch the feather in yer cap with capacitive touch. From left to right, the five symbols are a wave for phase, a music note for settings, the universal glyph for power, arrow down and arrow up. In the settings menu, one toggles through the options of ±9dB balance; lo/med/hi Ω; lo/med/hi gain; HF slope 1+2; ±9dB HF level; 7/10/11/12kHz HF freq; ±9dB midrange level; 0.7/1/1.2kHz mid freq; LF slope 1+2; ±9dB LF level; and 60/70/100/120Hz LF frequency. The up/down arrows either toggle sequentially through the five inputs or, in settings mode, scan through the available settings which the power switch makes accessible by changing the light intensity of the option. It's a clever way to control the lot from five manual controls.

On this score, it isn't as sophisticated however as Gold Note's new DS-10 which manages navigation through its extensive options with a single rotate/push controller and more informative display. But at €2'495 with full network and custom app capabilities, it's also positioned at twice the price.

íntimo's rear panel sports the line-level outputs on RCA and for digital inputs, 2 x coax, 2 x Toslink and 1 x USB plus a DC trigger port.

With EJ having kindly warned me that getting inside was more difficult than it looked, I let him submit our customary inside shots instead.

We see the linear power supply at right, the motherboard with inverted USB transceiver module in the middle and the output stage with dual-mono modules hanging off the heat sinks at left.