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Post by Ex_Vintage on Mar 29, 2021 22:39:48 GMT -5
Agree, but any of these brands in the products discussed here? Best, I can answer this question: I opened up my XPA-2 gen 1 and inspected every single boards. None of these brand name parts could be seen anywhere!! They are all either chinese's or no name!! Emotivas products sub components are made in china correct? They are assembled in Franklin with Chinese components. I would be amazed to find Japanese quality components in a product made in China. BTW, I would suspect any "budget" audio components to be primarily made of parts and assemblies made in China. |
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Post by nguyenphananh on Mar 30, 2021 0:30:43 GMT -5
I can answer this question: I opened up my XPA-2 gen 1 and inspected every single boards. None of these brand name parts could be seen anywhere!! They are all either chinese's or no name!! Emotivas products sub components are made in china correct? They are assembled in Franklin with Chinese components. I would be amazed to find Japanese quality components in a product made in China. BTW, I would suspect any "budget" audio components to be primarily made of parts and assemblies made in China. I dont mind the products assembly, make in china... as long as they use a quality japanese or american components |
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Post by audiosyndrome on Mar 30, 2021 7:38:46 GMT -5
For some time now Emotiva’s CCAs (circuit card assemblies) and other sub assemblies are manufactured in the USA by outside vendors. After delivery Emotiva does final assembly and test.
The outside vendors of the CCAs either buy the parts to populate the PCBs or Emotiva supplies the parts. In either case Emotiva supplies the BOM (bill of material). Same goes for the subassemblies.
So without seeing the BOM we don’t know what parts are being used by Emotiva. But if you want Mundorf caps buy any $20K amp instead of a $2K amp from Emotiva.
Russ
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Post by audiosyndrome on Mar 30, 2021 8:02:16 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2021 8:15:49 GMT -5
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Mar 30, 2021 8:51:10 GMT -5
In that case you should be able to remove or replace parts with no problem. Just bear in mind that "civilian" PCBs are somewhat less indestructible than MIL-SPEC materials.
And, for that matter, modern MIL-SPEC construction isn't always as tough as it used to be either. (Even the military have become more cost-conscious when things like cost-plus went out the window.  .) FOR THE REST OF YOU... The idea of having a professional do the soldering for you is not a bad idea... And neither is the idea of "doing your own research"... HOWEVER, sadly, not all "professionals" are actually technically competent either. Unfortunately there are a lot of "quacks" out there. And you don't need a degree to become a "repair-man" - especially at a neighborhood TV repair shop.
And you can't get sued for malpractice if you screw up someone's TV or audio gear. There absolutely are quite a few competent repair personnel out there. But don't assume that they all are. Likewise, while there are many competent trained and qualified people offering advice... ANYBODY can offer their advice on the Internet... There are many qualified and competent people doing "upgrades" and repairs...
But there are also some idiots and quacks out there... And some people who are just happy to get you to give them your money and waste it for you...
And, even more sadly, the most expensive ones are sometimes the least competent. And, I guess even more sadly, good reviews don't always tell the whole story.
Not many customers actually whip out a magnifier and inspect the soldering they had done by a so-called "professional".
(And, yes, in case you were wondering, I actually did both MIL-SPEC assembly soldering and inspection for several years at
Fairchild Weston Space & Defense Systems back in New York - long ago.)
Be especially careful of "upgrade houses" that offer to replace all of your capacitors with "audiophile grade parts"... And doubly careful of the ones who claim that special wire and connectors are going to make an audible difference...
And especially careful of the guys who want to wrap everything in aluminum foil or carbon fiber shielding... We actually received an XMC-1 back once whose owner had paid around $1000 to have all the wires wrapped in some sort of foil and mesh... And it had little aluminum strips stuck on top of all the capacitors... And I think ferrite beads had even been added under some of the junk wrapped around the wires...
Not surprisingly it didn't work at all after the upgrade... And of course, because of all these "modifications", OUR warranty was void...
And the cost to repair it and undo all the "upgrades" would have exceeded the price of a new unit... (It would have taken days just to remove all the extra crap they'd wrapped around, added, and painted and stuck on things.)
(And, yes, that nasty headphone string and foil wire is almost impossible to work with..... )
In general almost all capacitors are soldered in place... and, as far as I can recall, that is 100% true in everything we make. This makes them tricky to replace unless you are experienced with soldering and unsoldering components. (Sometimes very large filter caps, especially in older units, may be connected with wires and terminals or with screws alone.)
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING IT'S EASY TO DESTROY THE CIRCUIT BOARD WHEN ATTEMPTING TO UNSOLDER PARTS... IT'S ALSO EASY TO OVERHEAT THE NEW PART, WHICH CAN CAUSE IT TO FAIL OUTRIGHT, OR TO FAIL PREMATURELY...
To be quite blunt...
Soldering isn't all that difficult if you know what you're doing... But it's also quite easy to destroy things with a soldering iron if you don't know what you're doing...
If you have no experience with soldering then changing parts in a working amplifier is NOT a good place to start... (Maybe try a nice kit or two first.... and get yourself a nice temperature-controlled soldering iron and proper solder. ) I have training from a MilSpec rated solderer....And have high confidence AND have stumbled into fixing multi-level boards where I installed new part for a friend with 'no guarantee'. What makes me nuts is the microscopic wire in headphone cables with that extra 'filiment' for strength. |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Mar 30, 2021 9:09:02 GMT -5
Just to be above-board here...
Our BasX line is still manufactured, under our control, in China...
Our processors and XPA amps are designed, assembled, and tested here in the USA... The subassemblies are made in a variety of places, including the USA, China, and I believe even some in Canada...
However you will find that today, excluding companies who specifically like to "name drop", EVERYBODY uses parts manufactured around the globe.
In fact it can even be difficult to decide where a part is "made".... With a typical integrated circuit... - the chip may have been designed here in the USA - had the silicon fabricated in the USA or Japan
- had the legs and package added in Malaysia - been shipped to another country for testing - then soldered onto a board back here in the USA
I should also point out that, much as we love to support our local labor force and manufacturers, and do so whenever we can... You can't always judge a part by where it was manufactured...
And, especially when it comes to "audiophile parts", some expensive parts may perform really well, while others merely cost more...
Also, unfortunately, while some expensive parts may actually perform better under some conditions, some may NOT do so at all.
(For example, some low-cost capacitors have far better high frequency performance than "audiophile ones", so they actually perform far better when used as a bypass capacitor in a power supply. In that situation, replacing that "cheap capacitor" with an expensive audiophile one will not only cost more, but will actually seriously degrade the overall performance, and may actually cause problems.) This is one of those things actual engineers spend time learning...
As Russ says... you can always spend a lot more for an amp that uses all expensive "audiophile parts".
However, I would not count on hoping that it will measure better, sound better, or last longer.
(And, considering how much some expensive gear costs these days, the real question may be whether it outlives the payments...  )
For some time now Emotiva’s CCAs (circuit card assemblies) and other sub assemblies are manufactured in the USA by outside vendors. After delivery Emotiva does final assembly and test. The outside vendors of the CCAs either buy the parts to populate the PCBs or Emotiva supplies the parts. In either case Emotiva supplies the BOM (bill of material). Same goes for the subassemblies. So without seeing the BOM we don’t know what parts are being used by Emotiva. But if you want Mundorf caps buy any $20K amp instead of a $2K amp from Emotiva. Russ |
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Post by audiosyndrome on Mar 30, 2021 14:02:24 GMT -5
Hey Keith - I worked at Fairchild Weston (Fairchild Camera) on Robbins Lane in Syosset from 1981 to 1998 as Product Line Mgr. for cockpit TV cameras.
Did we overlap? Were you at a different unit?
Russ
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Post by audiosyndrome on Mar 30, 2021 14:11:21 GMT -5
I’m shortly going to redo my two channel system. Looking at Pass, Ps Audio and Parasound in addition to Emotiva. The JC1+ are $17K per pair (more than double the original JC1s). So one would expect to see some “name” parts. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2021 14:18:50 GMT -5
audiosyndrome Hey Russ, Look into NewAgeElectronics: new-age-electronics.com/halo-by-parasound-a31.htmlFor example I purchased my Parasound Halo A31 for 600 dollars off retail from them. I see currently the A31 3 channel is 2999$. I replaced my then Emotiva DR3 w/ the Parasound and quite happy w/ it - I consider the switch to Parasound an upgrade in fidelity though I heard from first hand owners of both earlier Emotiva generations that the difference is less than w/ Gen 3. The Parasound is my first Class A amp ..... at least Class A to round 7-14 watts [where most my listening occurs] before the gradual shift into Class AB. I'm only using 2 channels at the moment ... the fidelity of the A31 is supposedly identical to the A21+ but w/ an extra channel. And the Parasound Halo A21+ is now 2899.00: new-age-electronics.com/halo-by-parasound-a21-black-1.htmlLastly, the JC1+ are a work of art but not financially obtainable for me. They are monsters of both power and fidelity. William
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Post by leonski on Mar 30, 2021 16:14:05 GMT -5
Just to be above-board here...
Our BasX line is still manufactured, under our control, in China...
Our processors and XPA amps are designed, assembled, and tested here in the USA... The subassemblies are made in a variety of places, including the USA, China, and I believe even some in Canada...
However you will find that today, excluding companies who specifically like to "name drop", EVERYBODY uses parts manufactured around the globe.
In fact it can even be difficult to decide where a part is "made".... With a typical integrated circuit... - the chip may have been designed here in the USA - had the silicon fabricated in the USA or Japan
- had the legs and package added in Malaysia - been shipped to another country for testing - then soldered onto a board back here in the USA
I should also point out that, much as we love to support our local labor force and manufacturers, and do so whenever we can... You can't always judge a part by where it was manufactured...
And, especially when it comes to "audiophile parts", some expensive parts may perform really well, while others merely cost more...
Also, unfortunately, while some expensive parts may actually perform better under some conditions, some may NOT do so at all.
(For example, some low-cost capacitors have far better high frequency performance than "audiophile ones", so they actually perform far better when used as a bypass capacitor in a power supply. In that situation, replacing that "cheap capacitor" with an expensive audiophile one will not only cost more, but will actually seriously degrade the overall performance, and may actually cause problems.) This is one of those things actual engineers spend time learning...
As Russ says... you can always spend a lot more for an amp that uses all expensive "audiophile parts".
However, I would not count on hoping that it will measure better, sound better, or last longer.
(And, considering how much some expensive gear costs these days, the real question may be whether it outlives the payments... )
For some time now Emotiva’s CCAs (circuit card assemblies) and other sub assemblies are manufactured in the USA by outside vendors. After delivery Emotiva does final assembly and test. The outside vendors of the CCAs either buy the parts to populate the PCBs or Emotiva supplies the parts. In either case Emotiva supplies the BOM (bill of material). Same goes for the subassemblies. So without seeing the BOM we don’t know what parts are being used by Emotiva. But if you want Mundorf caps buy any $20K amp instead of a $2K amp from Emotiva. Russ One influence on what is made where....finished where and where assembled is LAW. When I started in semiconductor manufacturing, I think the limit was 3" wafers. These are 10 generations out of date. NOBODY uses such small wafers anymore. Maybe sombody does, but the profit goes to much larger wafers where the work involved is about the same for vastly higher output. A 6" wafer has 4x the surface area of the 3". Edges are problematic for a number of technical reasons. I have NO idea what the large silicon is today, but I know that getting a fabrication facility together costs MILLIONS. 300MM wafers are not uncommon....That's another 4x the area of the 6" wafer which when I first saw 'em, looked pretty huge! Laws have changed a LOT and companies adapted TO these new laws in order to take advantage of labor. A company I worked for moved 'assembly' to Mexico. From California. Saved a BUNDLE on labor and related costs while the space taken up by this part of the facility was repurposed to something more profitable. We're talking 30,000 to 40,000 square feet, or more. |
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Post by nguyenphananh on Apr 19, 2021 21:41:14 GMT -5
Update: So I bought a front panel PCB board from Emotiva, replaced it and the LED meter lights still didnt fix (should have known better, and it is not Emotiva fault, except they charged me too much for the PCB board... but that is another story). I ended up had the local TV repair shop fixed it for me. It took them almost 2 weeks of hard working to figure out and fixed the LED meter lights. While opened, I had them replaced some of the budging capacitors (with high quality parts). I didnt hear any different, as expected.
However, I had another project with a very interesting result. I have a pairs of AV123 RS750 tower speaker. For years, I never quite happy with the sound quality for stereo, hifi music with this speakers (for movies, it is really good, more than enough). This speaker sound overly warm, more like muddy, tiny, not open, like behind closed door ...etc. Recently, I learned about "recap, upgrading caps, resistors for crossover and amp". I didnt believe replacing few high ended capacitors and resistors (of exact value, spec) would make a different in sound quality.... Just to wasted time, I bought some high quality caps (mundorf oil film based). And for the experiment, I only replaced the caps on 1 speaker (of the pair). To my surprised, the new caps made the speaker sound very detail, clear, somewhat less muddy, more forward compare to the other none upgraded speaker!!!??. I was able to hear sound that didnt exit on the other speaker!!. With that said, I wouldnt claim the new crossover makes the speaker sound "way" better, cuz I only replaced the few caps and resistors.... but it did change the speaker sound charatistic!!. Never imagine capacitors quality (exactly same spec) can change sound quality!!.
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dq10s
Seeker Of Truth
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Post by dq10s on Apr 19, 2021 21:59:56 GMT -5
Guys, In the last 6 months I have gone crazy and purchased about 10K in audio, both new and vintage. I have owned 2 xpa 1's and a usp 1 since 09 and they have not failed me. But as of late I have purchased a HK 11 in the wood cabinet in pristine condition and a citation 12 deluxe in the same condition, also a citation 17, 18, and 16 in the same condition and I have been playing the lot on a set of DQ 10's, Martin Logan SL3's, Kef XQ 1's and several other sets of very nice speakers. Also bought an Emotiva xsp 1 new in November to replace the usp 1, also several new TT's and MC cartridges. After a ton of listening and comparing all the amps and speaker with said amps and preamps I come to the conclusion that all the Emotiva stuff sounds like sh**. The old HK sound so much more musical and the 60 watt 12 Deluxe has more balls that the xpa 1's by a long shot. The EMO stuff just sounds stiff and digital even thought the are the big GEN 1 amps.
Nothing better than OLD AMERICAN MADE STUFF.
'
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Post by leonski on Apr 20, 2021 2:13:12 GMT -5
Guys, In the last 6 months I have gone crazy and purchased about 10K in audio, both new and vintage. I have owned 2 xpa 1's and a usp 1 since 09 and they have not failed me. But as of late I have purchased a HK 11 in the wood cabinet in pristine condition and a citation 12 deluxe in the same condition, also a citation 17, 18, and 16 in the same condition and I have been playing the lot on a set of DQ 10's, Martin Logan SL3's, Kef XQ 1's and several other sets of very nice speakers. Also bought an Emotiva xsp 1 new in November to replace the usp 1, also several new TT's and MC cartridges. After a ton of listening and comparing all the amps and speaker with said amps and preamps I come to the conclusion that all the Emotiva stuff sounds like sh**. The old HK sound so much more musical and the 60 watt 12 Deluxe has more balls that the xpa 1's by a long shot. The EMO stuff just sounds stiff and digital even thought the are the big GEN 1 amps. Nothing better than OLD AMERICAN MADE STUFF. ' Don't like Mc? With the right speakers, one from te 275 series is FINE and good sounding.... www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/mcintosh_mc275_power_amplifier/index.htmlStereophile 'road' test and a bit of the history..... |
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Post by audiobill on Apr 20, 2021 11:05:51 GMT -5
A used MC275 from any period will run you $4k-$5k and is a great value.
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Post by leonski on Apr 20, 2021 19:09:28 GMT -5
A used MC275 from any period will run you $4k-$5k and is a great value. IF you are fan of the Mc house sound and presentation.......and are mainly a 2 channel guy? A long-term investment..... |
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KeithL
Administrator
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Post by KeithL on Mar 16, 2022 10:02:17 GMT -5
It was a long time ago - but that address sounds familiar.
I was with Fairchild Weston Space and Defense Systems... and a bit before you.
My section did subassemblies for portable radio jammers (I did assembly and inspection - never got to actually play with one).
(This was one of ours... it was really advanced gear for back then... boards and boards full of logic gates and discrete components.)
To put things like resale value in perspective... I heard that the US Gov was paying us about 350k per unit back then... The one in the close-up below sold at surplus auction for $53 (and $185 shipping)...
Hey Keith - I worked at Fairchild Weston (Fairchild Camera) on Robbins Lane in Syosset from 1981 to 1998 as Product Line Mgr. for cockpit TV cameras. Did we overlap? Were you at a different unit? Russ Attachments:
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Post by leonski on Apr 4, 2022 15:22:10 GMT -5
Update: So I bought a front panel PCB board from Emotiva, replaced it and the LED meter lights still didnt fix (should have known better, and it is not Emotiva fault, except they charged me too much for the PCB board... but that is another story). I ended up had the local TV repair shop fixed it for me. It took them almost 2 weeks of hard working to figure out and fixed the LED meter lights. While opened, I had them replaced some of the budging capacitors (with high quality parts). I didnt hear any different, as expected. However, I had another project with a very interesting result. I have a pairs of AV123 RS750 tower speaker. For years, I never quite happy with the sound quality for stereo, hifi music with this speakers (for movies, it is really good, more than enough). This speaker sound overly warm, more like muddy, tiny, not open, like behind closed door ...etc. Recently, I learned about "recap, upgrading caps, resistors for crossover and amp". I didnt believe replacing few high ended capacitors and resistors (of exact value, spec) would make a different in sound quality.... Just to wasted time, I bought some high quality caps (mundorf oil film based). And for the experiment, I only replaced the caps on 1 speaker (of the pair). To my surprised, the new caps made the speaker sound very detail, clear, somewhat less muddy, more forward compare to the other none upgraded speaker!!!??. I was able to hear sound that didnt exit on the other speaker!!. With that said, I wouldnt claim the new crossover makes the speaker sound "way" better, cuz I only replaced the few caps and resistors.... but it did change the speaker sound charatistic!!. Never imagine capacitors quality (exactly same spec) can change sound quality!!. Parts ain't parts! Good job. Modify the 2nd speaker and see if the PAIR is better........ |
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KeithL
Administrator
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Post by KeithL on Apr 7, 2022 10:01:18 GMT -5
Changing things like capacitors and resistors CAN make a difference... The catch is that it can also NOT make a difference - and it's difficult to predict which it will be without both general engineering knowledge AND specific knowledge of the circuitry involved. (And the "catch to the catch" is that "upgrades" can be extremely expensive, may be much larger, may create other problems, and can also make things worse rather than better.)
For example, in the power supply of an amplifier, replacing the capacitors with ones that have "better performance" will often have no effect whatsoever on sound quality. (And this is more true for more modern designs than for vintage ones.) And, with a modern amplifier, there should be very few capacitors in the signal path to begin with, so the ones that matter will usually already be of appropriate high quality. And while, in the old days, low cost carbon resistors, which had several drawbacks, were often used due to cost considerations... Nowadays high quality metal film resistors have become so cheap and readily available that you rarely see anything else in small signal applications. (And, at this point, there is rarely any benefit whatsoever in upgrading them to super premium resistors... because modern "cheap" resistors are simply already so close to perfect.)
With speakers things are different... Many older speakers used very low quality electrolytic capacitors, especially in certain situations, because the cost and size of "premium versions" was prohibitive. Face it... nobody is going to put a $50 capacitor in the crossover of a $100 speaker... and a 500 uF film capacitor might have both been expensive and the size of a soda can. Modern parts do in fact perform better... and usually at lower cost. And, while some premium capacitors may improve the sound quality in some places, in others they are just a waste of money.
It's also worth noting that "better" parts aren't always better in a particular application... and you may be making unintended changes. For example, the old square ceramic power resistors usually had significant inductance, and a modern metal film version will have almost none.
However, if you replace one with the other in a speaker crossover, you are changing the values, and so changing the response of the circuit. If the crossover was carefully calculated, and those calculations included the inductance of that old resistor, then the lower inductance of that new resistor is now incorrect. Likewise, the DC resistance of inductors in a crossover is always included in the calculations, and taken into account... Therefore, if you replace that coil with a "premium" version, with lower DC resistance, you should probably adjust a resistor value somewhere to compensate for that change. Otherwise the change you hear may merely be there because you've changed a component value - and not because the replacement is "better". It would be foolish to replace a $10 inductor with a $50 inductor if the only result was that you had to change a resistor value somewhere else to compensate for the "improvement".
NOTE that capacitors have several "specs" - so "replacing it with one of the same value" is not as simple as you might think... (Also note that, while audio frequencies are relatively low compared to RF, some of the high-frequency parameters do have some effect at audio frequencies...)
One particular "pet peeve" of mine, which I've seen numerous times, is when someone replaces capacitors on the circuit board of a component like a DAC or preamp. I've seen many examples where someone "upgraded" a DAC by replacing capacitors on the circuit board with large "premium" coupling or decoupling capacitors... However, because the new capacitors are many times larger than the originals, they don't fit in the original location on the board, and end up being mounted to the side of the case and connected with wires... The catch is that, in many high frequency applications, including a lot of digital circuitry, lead length is critical (even changing the length of a board foil by a few millimeters can make a difference). Someone may have gone to great effort to lay out that board so that the leads on that original capacitor were as short as possible - and now you've replaced them with big long wires.
(Even if that capacitor is "just an audio coupling capacitor", those long wires may pick up noise from other nearby circuitry, which could be a major problem.)
My point is not that such a substitution cannot possibly be a potentially audible improvement... But merely that, unless you know what you're doing, you shouldn't assume that it will be (and you could make things far worse instead of better).
We take a lot of things into consideration when we design gear... And we also built prototypes, and test them, to catch problems we may not have anticipated in advance... You're in a very different situation when you modify a piece of gear you've purchased, and void the warranty, because you hope the change will be an improvement.
I should also point out that, while there are some quite legitimate suggestions out there on the Internet, there are also a lot of really stupid and misguided ideas... Be especially careful about suggestions or offers to add "shielding" to internal components or cables - as they are often neither safe nor worthwhile.
And, while there are many folks offering legitimate "upgrades" and "mods", and who do really nice work, there are some real butchers out there too... (Sadly we've seen one or two cases where someone payed someone hundreds of dollars to turn a perfectly working unit into irreparable scrap.)
And, even worse, you can't always tell the difference by reading just a few reviews from a few satisfied customers... so DO be careful with stuff like that.
Update: So I bought a front panel PCB board from Emotiva, replaced it and the LED meter lights still didnt fix (should have known better, and it is not Emotiva fault, except they charged me too much for the PCB board... but that is another story). I ended up had the local TV repair shop fixed it for me. It took them almost 2 weeks of hard working to figure out and fixed the LED meter lights. While opened, I had them replaced some of the budging capacitors (with high quality parts). I didnt hear any different, as expected. However, I had another project with a very interesting result. I have a pairs of AV123 RS750 tower speaker. For years, I never quite happy with the sound quality for stereo, hifi music with this speakers (for movies, it is really good, more than enough). This speaker sound overly warm, more like muddy, tiny, not open, like behind closed door ...etc. Recently, I learned about "recap, upgrading caps, resistors for crossover and amp". I didnt believe replacing few high ended capacitors and resistors (of exact value, spec) would make a different in sound quality.... Just to wasted time, I bought some high quality caps (mundorf oil film based). And for the experiment, I only replaced the caps on 1 speaker (of the pair). To my surprised, the new caps made the speaker sound very detail, clear, somewhat less muddy, more forward compare to the other none upgraded speaker!!!??. I was able to hear sound that didnt exit on the other speaker!!. With that said, I wouldnt claim the new crossover makes the speaker sound "way" better, cuz I only replaced the few caps and resistors.... but it did change the speaker sound charatistic!!. Never imagine capacitors quality (exactly same spec) can change sound quality!!. Parts ain't parts! Good job. Modify the 2nd speaker and see if the PAIR is better........ |
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Post by leonski on Apr 7, 2022 14:38:59 GMT -5
I have Magnepan.....
A company called Skiing Ninja made replacement crossovers for my model. They were farily $$ but made from better parts than stock.
Also? They were a close to a direct replacement as possible to get. Same everything....but 'better' parts.
And I hate to bring it up. but the INDUCTORS make a difference, too. In my speaker? Magnepan uses an iron core of 16ga. All the replacement
guys go to all sorts of Exotic swaps to what I think is probalby only Minimal help. I see many posts about the 'DCR' of the coil with generally
lower being considered (wrongly, IMO) better.
Arrangement of such parts also makes a difference. I've seen DIY crossovers where the coils are simply arranged side-by-side on a board.
This insures maximum interaction and unpredictible outcomes.
And overall YES, I'll go with keith on the 'upgrade' path. If I had a reasonably well regarded piece of kit and some company wanted 1000$ to replace ALL the resistors and caps with
'premium audiophile' parts and do some other stuff....vibration control, and discrete OpAmps? and who knows WHAT else? I'd pass. Those modified pieces are probably worth less on the used market than if
it had been left alone.... I've seen images of some awful workmanship, too. Unacceptible.
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