Well, I had another go at those "pots" and still no luck

No improvement on the cdr front. In fact even a lettle diviation of of any of the pots makes things worse - discs are not even recognised(usually the player shows the no of tracks/total time before starting to click and eventually power off).To make it stranger still I did find one cdr in my collection that fires up as good as a red book cd -1 Maxell Music 80min Cdr (other cdrs of thesame/brand model do not work)... Maybe I have selected some particular options in Nero

(But I have tried disc at once/ Dao 96 with no results)
I have also found one Duncan's post with a reference to
"signal strength pot"... what/where is it???
D555:
I think the bass is alright after all - it is just I was brought on Mega Bass (boomy muddy) and .... I think the sound is fine and great really. DPS/ bass boost still do toooo little for me though - not that I need it.