hey,
dual recs have 'a kind of' built in attenuator when you activate the effect-loop. if you do this you can krank channel-master with the effect loop-'send level' (back of the amp) at about 7 (supposedly the sweet spot) making the 'loop active master' (front of the amp) your overall volume. i'm not sure if this works with parrellel loops ... i only have a serial loop.
i think in doing this you activate another gain stage, but i could be mistaken ... mesa's are pretty new to me.
i hope some other opinions will follow, but maybe you could do a search on this board ('effect loop') and read what's posted there. because i would not want to be the guy who's talking you in to buying stuff you end up hating because it's not what you are looking for. that said, the serial effect loops are limited to the earlier dual rec models so since i'm not sure if that trick works on parallel loops ... maybe you should read up on the issue.
I had a Hotplate for my Dual at one time, but I ended up selling it because I could dial in the same sound with the master volume. It was pointless for me to have it.
If you're looking at buying either a Single or a Dual, I recommend going with the Dual. Not only do you have the tube rectifiers along with solid state, but you can also pull two power tubes to bring it down to 50 watts.
The newer Rectos can also have the parallel loop modded to serial, if that's your thing.
