Sandy,

I know what you mean. I've been developing Acros in Hypercat 2-bath, and the sharpness is impressive. It's difficult to quantify, but I seem to get greater sharpness with a dilute solution of high pH, than with a more concentrated solution of lower pH. Maybe there's some local neutralization happening, in addition to the local exhaustion? You might be right about the difference in Stoeckler's developer and the ones we're using, but I would be very surprised if ours were significantly impacted by the addition of the few grams of sulfite necessary to eliminate staining.

I've been working with GSD-10, my glycin developer for stand development, and the sharpness it produces is somehow different than that produced by Hypercat. I can't say one is sharper than the other, but there is some qualitative difference.