I have had my 7.5-II for about 3+ years now and so far haven't found anything as musical or neutral or revealing as it under 20K. I have owned the Levinson #32 and the Audio Research REF3 and find the VTL superior to each in most ways. I recently tried replacing the factory tubes with NOS tubes (Cifte and then Telefunken 12AU7's) and it climbed up yet another notch in transparency and "immediacy". Highly recommended! Oh, and it's been reliable too! Nice remote--easy to learn to use in dim light.