jafant, just a (looong) clarification. Steve made a name among the tweakers post McCormack, but the company in its prime throughout the '90s and early-00s was substantial, offering moderately-priced well-engineered preamps, DACs, phono stages, etc. as well as power amps. They were brilliantly designed, but brought to an affordable price point with modest chassis build and components. Which is what makes the SMC upgrades so significant -- the basic design can really shine with top components and clever tweakage.
C-J took over manufacturing of the power amps in the late-90s with some consulting from Steve, but he had already started SMC Audio as his next gig. The later amps built by C-J never had the same success as the earlier California-built amps. My top-of-my-head chronology may be a little off, but that's the gist.
No overlap in the sonics between the two companies so far as I can tell. McCormack amps are purely solid-state with a bit of the good characteristics of tubes baked-in to the design. C-J has kept the classic tube sound more than other modern tube gear designs, but others here could evaluate that far better than me. A C-J preamp + McCormack power amp would be a good pairing I'm sure; I use an upgraded Sonic Frontiers tubed preamp.
