companies that modify equipment...opinions

I don't understand the appeal of buying a square peg then attempting to fit it into a round hole.

Just buy the round peg to start with.

Personally, I stay away from third party mods. What happens when something breaks or has a problem? Do you send it to the original maker, the modder, or both to get things fixed the way you want? Who needs this potential additioal aggravation? OR am I missing something here?

If the original designer has something more to offer as a mod or upgrade, that is something I might consider.

I suppose its a lot like tweaking except not as easily reversible if things do not work out for the better as intended. There is always more performance that can be squeezed out of anything. THe question is always does it add value? And what are the alternatives? No doubt most mods done right for the right reasons should only take things forward. As should an equipment upgrade as well. It all depends. There are advantages and disadvantages as with most things.

" a simple tweak almost everyone can do is to replace the cheap cap in series with tweeter with a really high end ones. I replaced the mundorf silver/gold with teflon v-cap in my avantgarde omega duos. the difference is dramatic "

How would that affect the warranty, if applicable.

Most vendors would not want end users mucking with their gear and then requesting support under warranty I would think.

"I agree totally with audioengr in that it CAN be a great way to go but you better do your homework."

Amen to that!

TO do the homework, one best be sure they are qualified or able to do it correctly as well!

I have no doubt Audioengr is qualified and knows not only what to do to do it right but what to do if something should go wrong. After, all, I believe that is his job.
You better be willing to invest the time needed to accomplish all this properly.

How many of us not in the home audio design and engineering business, like myself, can say the same thing? Are we better qualified than the engineers at say Audio Research to make these decisions regarding their products and do it right?

If so, maybe a particular companies products aren't all that great to start with and another should be considered.

I might consider letting a third party do such modifications, if they are currently endorsed or supported by the original makers to the extent of making certain mods without invalidating the warranty policy. Otherwise, I feel I might be wading into waters too deep for me personally to assess properly, especially if things head south.

"Mapman - you talk like the engineers at the larger high-end audio companies are gods and somehow know all"

Well, I had a SOny CD player once and it was fair at best.

Don't care for proprietary expensive Apple stuff much either.

The mhdt DACs I use are pretty decent sounding though and appear to have pretty good build quality for reasonable cost.

I know mods can be made to improve but as source only to external DACs Squeezebox Touch punches way above what its modest cost might indicate. Of course, that line has been discontinued. Probably too good to make a profit on as it was. I hope someone else picks up the technology and goes with it. How about you Steve? A lot of people like the Squeeze gadgets! THough a pretty good performer, I suspect a lot of the underlying software may have accumulated a lot of unwanted baggage though over the years and may need to start over. That's a software development task that I would personally find fascinating to undertake!

I have a Denon player/recorder that makes pretty good recordings though I have not used it in over a year to play back since going with music server. No doubt that can be bettered, in that it is not even top of Denon line I suppose.

Its hard to generalize. I do think engineers at certain modest sized specialty companies like AUdio Research and Bel Canto for example do know what they are doing and why they do it the way they do in an attempt to offer quality and value. Obviously, no large company selling to the masses is likely to make the absolute best anything and prefer to leave that niche market to more niche vendors.

THere is always good better, and best. By what margin does the best digital outperform other very good products? For how much more cost? Who will see the value?

ALl these things matter.

"Since you named names, why dont you read the review of the AR DAC8."

I'll grant that digital is clearly not the forte of Audio Research. Not the first place I would look for the best nor best value digital solutions. I'm sure there are people quite happy with all AR electronics out there, including digital sources though.

As an owner of an ARC tube pre-amp, they can do tube amplification devices pretty well though I would say! :)