Great review Kevin, cool looking piece of gear too. I agree 100% re using high quality cables and even patch leads when it comes to preserving sound quality on high end gear. Have a Mesa Boogie simul class 2:90 all tube power amp myself - the tube experience is so much better than my other Samson servo poweramp. Love the exposed tubes on your new piece of gear - have you tried running a guitar preamp through that then into a speaker simulator for DI recording? You really notice a massive increase in quality from that route - even running a modeller through that signal path will sound 100% better. Have fun with it!