  We consider the intermediate mass continuum of dileptons (between $\phi$ and
$J/\psi$) in ultrarelativistic heavy--ion collisions. The thermal signal
depends essentially on thermodynamic state parameters of the hottest parton
stage as $(\tau_i\lambda^q_iT_i^3)^2$ convoluted with an involved detector
acceptance function. A refined analysis of the transverse pair momentum
spectrum at fixed dilepton transverse mass can reveal the maximum temperature
of parton matter.
