I first saw it via the old NLA&Ishin&A-F (=The Triad) TV-fansubs, which is still an excellent release despite its age. Yeah, the A/V quality isn't the greatest, but the subbing is top-notch. So don't be too quick to discount the "random .avi crap" -- IIRC there's a torrent out there with the NLA/Ishin/A-F .avi release, without any group tags in the file names.
Other than that, you could try one of the dual-audio versions, like Blitz, B-A, or a4e. Those should have plain .srt without hardsubbed karaoke or lengthy onscreen notes. I never checked those out myself, as I picked up ADV's release, but they should be obtainable on IRC.