Micromega DUO DAC TDA1541a sell? mod?


I have this 20 years old DAC, and it was wonderfully musical at the time.

Compared to the new DACs, it lacks detail big time. I learned that the old TDA1541a chip isn't bad at all, so the performance might be limited by the presence of Jitter? Not sure either.

I am not sure if it's worth the time+$ to mod it? or should I sell it for dirt?

It has a volume control so it's quite useful.

Any suggestions?
kschiu
btw, the Holden&Fisher toroidal transformers alone in this dac should worth $200-$300 alone
The Micromega DUO dac along with Musical Fidelity Digilog, Arcam Delta Black box and other TDA1541A bring the magic for the Red Book CDs. It's only after you listen to them you start finding the faults of the delta sigma dacs, advanced segment ES9018 etc
Sure you get higher definition on the newer dacs but along with it you get chemicals.

These are built with organics, they extract the magic, there is a sparkle in the mids, the attack which is missing completely in the newer dacs, even in the newer PCM1704.

The only dac I dream about is the MSB or Rockna with R2R.

Listening to this DAC after years made me write this comment and revamp this old thread, it's the emotion from the music I hear that's pushing me to do it, something that I look for in audio gear, the rest is just metal junk.
It's a 1541a. It was the first DAC that Micromega made, with a volume control/preamp or buffer amp in it. It even has external analog input.

1 year later they came up with the DUO B.S. (bitstream). It was 1989 i believe.

I just hooked it up yesteday with a "fancy" power cord (back in the 80-90s, nobody used any fancy power cord), a Denon 3930 as a transport, directly drove my CJ LP70S, and the sound is actually VERY respectable. A very different kind of sound, not as detail as the Denon, but definitely very "Organic".

Now I am even thinking about sending it somewhere to get it modded ...