Best Integrated Amp You Ever Heard?

My modified Pathos TT RR is the best integrated amp I've heard, and one of the handfull of best amplifiers I've heard. The stock Pathos TT is already a superb amp, however with capacitor and resistor upgrades it gains speed, dynamics, three dimensionality, and bass slam without losing any of the extraordinary timbral accuracy and SET-like sweetness of the stock unit. The best "bang for the buck" upgrade is replacing the four 1uf coupling capacitors. I had mine replaced with Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil, had a couple of other capacitors replaced with Blackgates, and several resistors upgraded to Audionote. Still to come: Bybee Music Rails.

After more than three weeks of 24/7 play, the heavily modified/upgraded amp has "shifted gears" and sounds wonderful. It is faster, more authoritative, and more articulate than both the stock Pathos TT and my 2011 upgrade. Those big Dueland Cast PIO tinned copper capacitors are a revelation. Noise floor, clarity, timbre, tone density, soundstaging, etc. - everything is improved over the previous version. Together with the ZR Acoustics panels I am getting the best sound of my life.

Forward to 2020 for Pathos TT RR major modification part 2:

Nine years after my 2011 capacitor upgrade I decided to "shoot the works" with a 2nd upgrade to try to make the amp the best it could possibly be. After discussing the amp and in particular its age (made in 2006) with the folks at Pathos I decided to replace the big red capacitors, the mother board, and power chip boards with the latest versions. The 1uf coupling capacitors are now "world's best" Dueland Cast PIO Tinned Copper Foil, and key resistors were replaced with Vishay Z-Foil. Internal wiring was replaced with Stage III Concepts silver and Dueland tinned copper hookup wire, and Bybee Music Rails were added. It is breaking in now but is already clearly on a whole different level from the previous iteration and significantly better in all aspects than my modified Unison S6. Note that when the remote control circuitry failed I had it replaced with a vintage Alps "Black Beauty" volume pot, which sounds better to me. Kudos to Bill Thalman of Music Technology, Inc. who did a superb job on this project and on the Unison S6 upgrade that preceded it. See my photo gallery.