Melos updates worth it?

I have a Maestro, I have opened up the cover and found horrible solder joins (which I re-flowed) chandged to amperex 7308 gold pin and noticed the unit does not have the photentiometer. I talked to this Melos update company 5 months ago (I lost their number since then) and they said it was hard to get the photentiometer parts. What is the update you speak about and can you list their number? I use the Melos MAT-180 as an amp. It works very well with the Maestro preamp.

Do you think the circuit is the same for the Maestro and the sha-gold except the caps upgrade? I know they have a update for the MAT-180 but the preamp is more reasonable to upgrade and I think I want to try the preamp first. The Maestro volume and balance pots have some gear play that makes them seem cheep. The do not react quickly with the remote because of the gear lash. I love the sound from the products even better now with the Audio Note DAC 1.1x in the system.

Sedond, I did contact them and the update for the preamp sounds ok. They remove the FET's from the circuit. Brant mentioned that he does not have parts for the photentiometer and did not mention a new one. He said that I would be better off updating the MAT-180 then the Maestro. He said I should just jumper out the balance and get a stepped volume control, but this eliminates my remote, that I love.