having extensively auditioned both the big knob and the central station.
the big knob is far, far, far from being transparent. it adds a significant amount of grain to the sound as well as limiting dynamics. it also shrinks the soundstage to a great degree as well as messing w/ leading edge transients. overall, i think the unit might find a home in a project studio where finances are a real factor. but for me, i can't STAND how this unit mucks up the sound. how i the hell would one ever be able to do a decent mix w/ this thing in their chain.
the central station is another story. w/o the remote, i find the unit pretty transparent. it sounds a tad shy in the bottom, bottom end to me and a little bit thin sounding in that it sounds like it's not letting all of the harmonic complexities thru. and yes, the tracking at the lowest end of the attenuator is not perfect. but these complaints are in no way a deal breaker. EVERYTHING to my ears affects the sound to some degree. all i'm saying is that (without the remote) the unit has a fairly negligible affect on what goes thru it. i wish i could say that this doesn't change when the remote is used, but.... sadly, i think it mucks up the sound quite a bit.
to owners of the CS w/ the romote. do the test Urself. match the levels and swap the remote in and out.