I have this amp for over a year now and I still enjoy the listen. I have since the mid-range cost of what the manufacturers offer fnac not find this excellent transparency offered by the Carat. May be the Electronic tubes fared better, but I think - it's a personal opinion - we need to invest more than the price of Carat for electronic tubes have a quality and sustainable time.
The remote is somewhat cheap weak point of all this, he should marry a good CD player and good speakers, the cons-part of its transparency, otherwise you may find yourself with a system that the sonority bland.