Thanks everyone for helpful suggestion. I was thinking about BAT for awhile but have not had a chance to audition it yet. A local dealer was trying to get VAC here but supposedly VAC told him that they are already at full capacity in their production line so they are not looking to add another oversea supplier at this time or something to that effect.
Syntax, I hope you read my post a bit more carefully. Remote is certainly a plus for me, but I also could use more than 3 inputs. If you stop being a sarcastic and actually pay attention a bit more, you could be a bit more useful here. If you think warm and tubey sound is inferior, that's your choice, I was not asking for your critique on my preference for sound.