Thanks for the response, sorry you had such a bad experience. So far, so good with my own Belles and a friend of mine has been running one for years. Only problem he ever had was the power switch wearing out. Had a McCormack DNA 0.5 Deluxe for a little bit. Wasn't crazy about it, though maybe it was a bad match wth the Herron pre I was running. Then again, the Herron didn't wow me either, despite all the glowing reviews.