Yes the remotes control the volume and the balance control, you must have had the old model. I had an older RGi35 which did not have a remote and I moved up to the RGi35ENR Black Series and then on to this amp, RGi 60ENR and I now have the RGi 175 ENR monoblocks. All of the Redgum amps sound great and I am also a tube person, but there is something about Redgum amps that is so musical and they are my favorite solid state amps. Redgum deserves much more of a presence in the US and hopefully Colleen Cardas Imports will give them the marketing that they deserve. BTW the knobs are in perfect shape so maybe I will have to take some new pictures.