ARC VSi60 vs Ayon Spirit II/III

I am not directly familiar with the performance of the ARC VSi60, never having owned one, but I do own a SPIRIT III. Without getting into immense detail, my overall impression of the sonic quality and overall performance of the SPIRIT III is not very favorable. The TRIODE mode is thin and "peaky" in the upper frequencies, and the PENTODE mode is "grainy", with a tendency toward overemphasized harmonic distortion in the high frequency spectrum. The entire matter has me a bit "boggled". So far I have tried various manipulations with different cables that I have and a few "swaps" with different source components, just to see what the differences reveal. It's pretty much a case of going from bad to worse. The amp doesn't seem too receptive to any of the cableing and component swaps I have made. If anything, my primary choice source components sound best. I have yet to put 200 - 300 hours on the SPIRIT III, and I intend to do so before I start getting totally hyper about the whole thing. Interesting fact is that my initial reaction to the sonic performance was good, and I expected to see major improvements with break-in. If anything the performance seem to be sliding "down hill". I am at a loss to understand why. At this point I can't recommend the SPIRIT III to anyone. If anything my significantly less expensive JOLIDA 502BRC sounds better and more satisfying. I switched back to the 502 just to make certain my ears hadn't " gone out of calibration". Right now the JOLIDA sounds better with the SHUGUANG "BLACK TREASURE" KT-88'S and NOS pre-amp tubes that I installed a couple of month before I took it out of service. I'm still astonished about that, especially considering that the JOLIDA is Class AB pure PENTODE operation. It may be nothing more than the SPIRIT III having a unusual break-in curve. I certainly hope that's true. An additional caviot - - I do not like the binding posts that AYON (in their infinite wisdom) decided to go with on the SPIRIT III. I can not apply enough finger pressure to keep spade terminations locked down tightly. Definitely contributing to bad interfacial conditions. There it is. If things suddenly improve, I'll let you know.