Greetings, a pleasure to join this thread for the Job 225, a fine piece of audio gear that I'm enjoying in my system. I purchased not long after the 6moons review was published, and a couple of email exchanges with Srajan wherein he admitted liking the Job to the point that he was comfortable having it replace the ModWright KWA100SE in his audio array.
Soon after receiving the Job I began to feel that if it could sound so very fine with the somewhat less-than compelling stock parts, just how good could it sound with upgrades? I took advantage of a sale Sonic Craft was having at the time and sent the Job to them to have binding posts, ac inlet, and input jacks all professionally replaced with substantially better Furutech parts. After getting the Job back I replaced the fuse with a HiFi Tuning, swapped in a Triode Wire Labs 8+ power cord, and set the Job up on Herbie's Tenderfeet. I'm not a "measurement" guy, and I don't torment myself analyzing specific sonic attributes/faults, it's pretty much "does it sound better to my ears?" The upgrades definitely helped the Job sound even "better" to my ears.
So, what's next? With the Job providing such a remarkably cost-effective and sonically superior platform, I don't see any point in NOT attempting some additional parts upgrades. The next obvious area to focus on would be caps/resistors. The Goldmund/Job designers have leveraged maximum performance from their chosen parts, but again, what might the performance "ceiling" be with carefully considered parts from the likes of Rike, Rel-Cap, Audyn, Obbligato, Munforf, etc.?
I've already traded emails with Chris J. at Parts Connexion, and he expressed willingness to have me send in the Job for evaluation of a further upgrade path. I'm seriously considering doing so, as I don't possess the expertise to tackle such an undertaking myself, and have enough respect for the Job's basic design that I'm disinclined to just "throw darts" to see what sticks. It'd be helpful to me to hear from any other Job owners/fans who have considered these sorts of upgrade and may have arrived at some solid conclusions. Thanks.
