Originally posted by Myles
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I suspect that many of us have tried some form of equipment tweaking / modding. At its simplest level, it can just be tube rolling. The next level up from that is parts swapping - i.e. putting in better quality coupling caps and resistors. When we're talking about vintage gear, then we should also talk about replacing parts that don't age well such as electrolytic capacitor in the power supply.
In my case, I've got an engineering background, know and like to solder and have built and modded lots of gear. I've got the following classic gear that I've restored or had restored and that I like to swap in and out of my system:
Amplifiers: Harman Kardon Citation II; McIntosh MC30 (monoblocks); Threshold S/200 II
Preamps: Conrad Johnson Premier 14; Threshold FET 10
Integrated Amps: Fisher X100-3; Scott 299a
I think it all sounds pretty good and although each component has its own signature. I haven't tried comparing this stuff to the latest and greatest gear available today, so I'm curious to know what I'm missing. What's everyone else's experience?
Is modding / restoring vintage gear a path to audio nirvana or just a waste of energy? Inquiring minds want to know.
---Gary
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