Gerry;
I agree with your opinion and those of the quotes. I have upgraded my caps and resistors as well as the BH power cords. Being an old time employer of the engineering group for a major fuse manufacturer I am still not convinced about the fuses. I currently use KR 300Bs, Electro Harmonix 300Bs, and Genelex PX300Bs. I have used EML in the past and liked them as well. Right now I am waiting for the KR clones to try them out. The only resin for the choice was the warranty and local availability. The last EMLs I bought were from NY but I got cleaned out by UPS brokerage fees coming here to Canada and customs duties as the country of origin was not the US. I have done a lot of listening tests with tubes and personally I am not in love with Chinese products. This is not a bias thing, it is purely based on my listening experiences.
I also had thoughts like yours regarding the AC vs DC but those concerns no longer exist for me. Also I support the comments made by Xavier, this weekend I had the opportunity to audition some very expensive mono bloc amps at a local shop and he had the same speakers I had. I found that they were not any better than my Paramounts with the upgraded CAPs and resistors. My next step will be Magnaquest iron which I have been told, takes things up a notch.
By the way I am very interested in your open baffle speakers, what are the drivers and is there any specs available for the cabinets? I would like to try my hand at speakers this year.
Cheers;
Mike