bigboltz, the Chinook is an amazing piece. Also, after retubing with NOS Amperex 7308 white labels, I have zero buyer's remorse. Unfortunately I have nothing substantial to compare it to as my previous phono stage was nothing special. However, the sound I'm getting is wonderful, and the tubes and cartridge have only 13 hours on them so I have a ways to go. The holidays were very busy for me so I didn't put nearly the hours on them as I wanted.
I can say this though, the Chinook is a safe buy because not only does it sound great, you can sell it easily for good coin if you choose to go down a different path in the future.