I just got my VC99 and first impressions are good. The build quality is pretty good and the screen is nice and clear. It also handled adjusting Stax bias just fine where most cheap meters overload the bias supply and thus give the wrong voltage. Looks like Marc has nothing to fear from me...
The Blue Hawaii is the ultimate amp for most people. It may not be the end all amp it would take a lot of money to make something noticeably better. What I'd like to see is just how far we can push SS amps since the BH and T2 take good care of the tube side.
You are doing well my young friend but you need more overkill and frankenphones.
Before I went nuts I had a SR-007/Blue Hawaii but even that wasn't enough to stop the evil thoughts from appearing, "I wonder how those crazy Sigma's would sound..." etc.
If you can open it up and take pics then we should be able to see what needs to be done. The screws are probably very well fixed in place (he put some adhesive on them so that nobody could open them up) so I'd buy a few 1/16" hex keys since you bound to destroy at least one. Some pliers also help.
If I had the heatsinks and could therefore link the singles into a double unit, then I'd use them but I do have a small stash of 389's so I continue to use them instead. The LSK389 is supposed to be better so I might just use that instead when I run out.