Well, fellas. I found Mike - what a great guy. He is alive and well in Maplewood and still doing great work. He checked out my Pearl 2 and found a few (ahem) issues with my build, but nothing fatal. It now is back home and sounds, well, unbelievably good.
It is very hard to tell the difference between the Pearl 2 and my Pass Labs XP-15, except noise, ( to be expected because the XP-15 is fully balanced). Sound- wise they both are sweet as a fresh bowl of strawberries.
Thanks, Mike. Your the best !!