Supratek or Don Sachs - which way to go?

Nice review. I used to have a Cortese and would consider purchasing another in the future. Agree that Mick is great to deal with. Hard to beat the Cortese if you want a great sounding preamp with a built-in phono stage. I'm intrigued by the new LCR phono stage. I hope to read more about it.
My only gripe with the one that I owned was that the separate power supply really warmed up my small-ish room, much like some tube amps would do. I'm wondering if the separate power supply of the new Cortese model warms up your room at all?

So far I haven't noticed the power supply warming anything up. However, my new listening room is about 16 x 24 and I sit about 15 feet away from the shelving where the Cortese and other equipment are located.

How is the volume control on the Cortese, is it smooth, can you control it in small steps ? From the remote also ?

Just got a Sachs preamp delivered yesterday.  I'll post more after I've got a couple hundred hours on it, but first impressions are very positive.  

The volume control is super smooth and solid. It can be controlled from the remote. The "channel" buttons change the volume in smaller steps. The "volume" buttons are "normal", whatever that means.