McCormack DNA-125/225 Upgrades

Wow, you guys who have had the upgrades, and especially Bruce's review are very convincing! To be clear, my post above was in no way meant to disparage what the good folks at SMc are doing or the quality of the products. My point was that they have to basically dismantle a production built amp and rebuild it to achieve the level of performance you guys are talking about. However, after reading your posts, maybe that is not the point at all, rather it is about a guy doing what he loves to do while making some of the best available stereo products and working daily with people who appreciate his ideas and efforts. We should all have such dream jobs! It is obvious he is committed to the satisfaction of his customers. My regret now is not ever having heard the revision A version of my DNA2, maybe I should have chosen to go ahead with the upgrade.

Reading this thread, and particularly Paul's post, made me think about what you are really getting for your money with these upgrades. I owned the DNA2 and seriously considered having it upgraded by SMc. My conversations with the folks at SMc showed them to be dedicated, professional and very helpful. However, as I researched it, my decision was that for the cost of the upgrades, one could buy a sonically equivalent or superior new (or used) amp. I am sure the 125,225 and 500 are nice amps, but I belive a significant amount of the upgrade cost through SMc must be labor, since that is their main source of revenue. Therefore, wouldn't it be better if McCormack made a "Signature" series of these amps, which incorporates the upgrades and takes advantage of the lower cost of line-based assembly, rather than for consumers to have to pay SMc to both take apart the factory installed components then install the upgrades, just to get the desired performance. On the flip-side would be the low cost production of the Parasound JC-1 Halo, in which all the concievable modifications are incorporated into the design, and the assembly is performed in as low-cost a manner as possible (overseas). I am not advocating overseas production (in fact all of my components are American made), and I am not saying the Halo is a better amp than a modified McCormack, but simply pointing out the different production philosophies and the potentially high proportion of labor cost to sonic benefit of the upgrades associated with these McCormack amps.