Yikes! The before clips really did sound bad! I've gotten that before with other equipment by severely overloading the input. "Spitty" is much a better description than "fizzy"...
It's hard to believe that DR would have let that circuit go out the door. Though, as was mentioned, maybe he wasn't expecting anyone to dime the volume. But these things do have a master volume, so...

Maybe he was at the track, checking out the new HIWATT Formula 1 car the day they did the player's test?
Don't tell Clayton... he'll pop a gasket!
