Hey Kubla, glad to share my reactions to your query. I will go through a brief "personal pre-amp history", which includes the Counterpoint 5.1, to hopefully put my comments in perspective.
A 5.1 replaced an Audible Illusions 4D a few years ago. The Counterpoint made the Audible, despite the latter's superior soundstage stability, sound like it was on Valium; slow and lethargic. The 5.1 also had more natural tonal colors; the AI's sounded and still sound, to my ears, too "gray" and slightly bleached out sounding; and don't boogie.
After trying and living with an AR SP14, Threshhold FET 10, Classe 6, and Quicksilver, I settled on a Melos 222C. In my opinion, the Melos is in a different class altogether. It's got the bass extension of the FET, the soundstaging of the Classe and even better dynamics than the Counterpoint; and tonally it sounds much more like the real thing. By the way, in my system, the only one of the above that I would not rate as an across the board improvement over the 5.1 was the FET 10 (too mechanical and analytical).
Having done the expensive mod thing with other products over the years, the end result for me has always been that the basic character of the product is retained with relatively subtle improvements in certain areas. Now, for all I know Elliot's mods are brilliant, but my strong gut reaction is that for $3500 you can get a pretty great pre that will be, with the possible exception of dynamics, superior to the Counterpoint.
May I also suggest that you give George Kay (of NYAL fame) a call. He modded my 5.1 for a heck of a lot less than $3500, with positive results; again, the basic character of the piece did not change. He lives locally (NYC), but I don't have his number in front of me. If you are interested, I will get it to you.
Good luck.
A 5.1 replaced an Audible Illusions 4D a few years ago. The Counterpoint made the Audible, despite the latter's superior soundstage stability, sound like it was on Valium; slow and lethargic. The 5.1 also had more natural tonal colors; the AI's sounded and still sound, to my ears, too "gray" and slightly bleached out sounding; and don't boogie.
After trying and living with an AR SP14, Threshhold FET 10, Classe 6, and Quicksilver, I settled on a Melos 222C. In my opinion, the Melos is in a different class altogether. It's got the bass extension of the FET, the soundstaging of the Classe and even better dynamics than the Counterpoint; and tonally it sounds much more like the real thing. By the way, in my system, the only one of the above that I would not rate as an across the board improvement over the 5.1 was the FET 10 (too mechanical and analytical).
Having done the expensive mod thing with other products over the years, the end result for me has always been that the basic character of the product is retained with relatively subtle improvements in certain areas. Now, for all I know Elliot's mods are brilliant, but my strong gut reaction is that for $3500 you can get a pretty great pre that will be, with the possible exception of dynamics, superior to the Counterpoint.
May I also suggest that you give George Kay (of NYAL fame) a call. He modded my 5.1 for a heck of a lot less than $3500, with positive results; again, the basic character of the piece did not change. He lives locally (NYC), but I don't have his number in front of me. If you are interested, I will get it to you.
Good luck.