Which one would you buy

Generally, what @mulveling said. 

Skyfi's business model is to soothe the paranoid, you-get-what-you-pay-for crowd with bloated prices and cloying pseudotechnical mini-essays.

The Ham & Hi-fi listing does have great pictures showing a quality rebuild. Where I diverge a bit is reading this from their listing

note that the tubes are untested and we cannot guarantee their condition, particularly the vintage 12AX7. Further, you'll notice that the screws that hold the gold cover in place are missing, but you can likely find substitutes at your local hardware store.

1. Why didn't they test the tubes? Surely a shop with the word "ham" in its name has got a tube tester somewhere.

2. If the tubes are untested, how was the amp tested? Different set of tubes? Maybe I missed that part and now I'm too lazy to go back 😃

3. Just replace the cover screws already if your local hardware store "likely" has them. Asking $855 for an amp but not bothering to get $2 worth of screws and spray painting their heads to match, I don't know, unless I'm missing something, that kinda rubs me the wrong way honestly.

Neither - as a Pilot 240 sounds better than the 81 (owned an 81 that I had refurbished once in the late 70's and still own a 240).

Hifi poser Jeff Day brought the 81 back into focus @ one point.

Didn't care for the phono sections in either, but tape through the line inputs was stellar as is CD through the 240.

DeKay

@devinplombier I think what they mean by untested is that they can't guarantee the condition of the tubes. They're working but they don't know the specs. It's barely an issue. It also looks like they're not the rebuilders–just reselling it..

1. Why didn't they test the tubes? Surely a shop with the word "ham" in its name has got a tube tester somewhere.

2. If the tubes are untested, how was the amp tested? Different set of tubes? Maybe I missed that part and now I'm too lazy to go back 😃

3. Just replace the cover screws already if your local hardware store "likely" has them. Asking $855 for an amp but not bothering to get $2 worth of screws and spray painting their heads to match, I don't know, unless I'm missing something, that kinda rubs me the wrong way honestly.

@devinplombier  Ooof, I didn't see that - your're right it's sheer laziness & sloppiness, which is a  bit disconcerting in this context. That said, the internals look really nice, and their feedback is 100% - so I would still go ahead with purchase if I really wanted that unit. You'd hope maybe they have a "known good" keeper tube set for rebuild testing, and then they pop in the unit's "original, as supplied" tubes back in at the very end (still very lazy not to re-test). OR they didn't actually rebuild it, and are just selling someone else's rebuild. 

The price is right, but still, just why leave these loose ends??

The rebuild on the less expensive unit looks good, but I used Yellow Illinois coupling caps on mine @ the recommendation of the friend who rebuilt it (he used Orange coupling caps in my Dynaco gear).

The only time we disagreed was when he wanted to put a brass nut on my Ibanez PF300.

DeKay