Hmmm, since the 'jump from -20 to -18' is intentional, then it would seem reasonable to conclude that the runaway volume that I experienced can be attributed to 'invalid input'. You mentioned that the empeg interprets a rapid series of button presses to mean 'I want the volume to increase rapidly'. Since it did seem like I hit the button twice (more rapidly than could otherwise be done), maybe it just figured, 'Ok, this is what you asked for'. Granted, the volume setting should not run away, and I can't help but think that the circumstances under which this occured were just extremely unusual. I'll fiddle around a bit and see if I can get the volume to run away again (not that i'll put a great deal of effort into it).