It really hasn't been a problem for me at all. You only really notice the small gap between the knob and the fascia when looking at it from the side, which I don't do much in real life usage of the player.

If a person had never seen the front of the player before, I don't think they'd notice that the knob is sticking up a tiny bit.

It's worth it just to get the better performance from the new encoders and the smooooth action when spinning the knob....

By the way, I noticed that the Mouser page data sheet for the encoder lists the operating life at 15,000 cycles. Does anyone know how that translates to real use? Does every flip of the volume knob up or down count as 1 cycle?

Thanks, Randy