They are powerful, great, great bass, and magical midrange, which is the trademark of QS amps. I have never heard anyone say anything bad about QS, look and search. I compared them with my CAT JL2 which are among the very best P/P tubes amps in the world, and while ultimate I prefered the QS, your talking about amps 3x the price and I could have lived happily with either. These amps are neutral with tube bloom, but not classic euphonic sounding - that works for me. You'll not find a more reliable, lifetime amp on the market and you will always be able to sell them for what you pay for them if you buy used - quickly to. I don't know what elese you are considering, but I've been a QS fan since my first 8417s years ago, and they remain Amercican made, reliable, with sound engineering and no flavor of the month nonsense.
