***Is It Me Or Have Todays Modern Tubes Gotten REALLY REALLY Good***

^^^ Oh ok,since you are obviously a tube guru we will all bow to your superior knowledge and completely disregard todays far better manufacturing facilities and materials and spend hundreds of dollars on 50+year old tubes that may or may not be matched,balanced or even unused...

Hi raiths.I don't see the Cayin as an upgrade as far as the sound is concerned.That little Quad amp is amazingly musical.About the only real difference I hear is when running KT88's in UL mode.Bass slam & definition is deeper & has a little better tightness over the Quad but the mids, when running EL34 in Triode mode are right at the level of the Quad.The ONLY reason I sold my Quad is because even with glasses I didn't want to be poking around the inside of the Quad to bias new power tubes.I will say that the Cayin is simply awesome from an ease of use factor and being able to switch from EL34 to KT88 with a simple re bias AND the triode/Ultra Linear modes makes for a hugely enjoyable amp!

^^^ to be honest I've heard Tube integrated amps & separates up to $10,000.00 & IMO they just are NOT that much "better"than the Quad.I would try some good NOS small signal tubes and look at upgrading speakers/cables before I would change amps.IMO that amp could scale up to $10,000.00 speakers and not be outclassed.