Mijostyn seems you've never gone the mod route, it is hardly losing or wasting money unless you somehow equate greater musical performance and engagement a waste. Better sound promotes more musical purchases, at least in my experience. Well placed mods/upgrades by an experienced tech is some of the smartest spending you can do.
I Recapped my Conrad Johnson PFR. Wow! Some of the best $$$ I've spent
Wow! What a thrill. I've had this preamp for about 15 Yrs and it has always been a good performer. But I can't remember it sounding any better than it does now. The tech used the best Nichicon resistors available. Now I'm considering hhaving my CDP recapped and maybe the speaker crossovers too. That should make nearly a new sounding system. So it cost me a little less than $200 to get the caps replaced and the solder joints inspected and fixed on the PFR. I assume this is a good use of funds And its sure cheaper than buying that tube preamp that I've been looking at for quite some time. But even though my system sounds very good, I keep looking at the tube preamps for some reason. Hmmm