You be genius, Wade..
Actually 16-bit - but it was the default Windoze 640x480 driver! Because I knew the mon was a POS, I just blew past the "go find a Voodoo 3 driver" part on my list of all the &^&%*$ details when you start with an MT HD. :-)
Thanks! Amazing how much better this old Optiquest 15" looks when you can change the gamma with a slider. Not that I need 16 MB of video RAM but.. I'll remember what basic ineffective dithering looks like, from now on :[
Now.. when you snag a cheap scope - to show the intriguing "bowl of worms" audio display (in X-Y mode, for the L&R signals) I'll owe you one. Check it out some time - quite mesmerizing, depending on the music textures and the amount of ster. separation: the famous Marantz 10B tuner had a position for using its multipath tuning display for this effect. It's a dynamic Lissajous in fact...
Cheers,
A.