I owned the 31SE for a few years, then went to a Cary SLP98F1, still didn't get what I was looking for. I then auditioned the Mac that your are looking at, like the BAT it was just too solid state sounding, to me. Then I brought home a VTL 5.5, it has everything I was looking for, 3 dimensional, with bass slam. very happy with the VTL.
jeff
jeff