Here is my two cents worth... bang for the buck you cant beat the Carvin, Like he said it has real tubes and there is no substitute for tube compression at all and as far as reliability Ive owned a carvin ht1000 pwr amp since around late 1997 I use in my monitor rack and it does two separate mixes
We run it side by side with a QSC and for the 350.00 blows it out of the water as ive never even seen it clip also a friend uses a carvin bass rig and has had no problems ever hope that helps....jeff