Older vs newer with comapinies like CAT & AI??

Given a good basic design to start off with, it is quite possible to take an older piece and upgrade / replace passive parts ( resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc... ) and smoke the newer gear by a measurable amount. Not only has inflation set into high end, so has higher profit margin for the dealers. Avoiding both and putting your money directly into where it counts ( parts quality since the design is already done ) on an item that is effectively heavily discounted will get you the most bang for the buck by a large margin. That is, if you are capable of sourcing the parts and doing the work yourself. Sean
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i would go for an older model that was SOTA in its time and have it upgraded/or have vunerable parts replaced. there may be a lot of changes in the years since they were SOTA but not all were necessarily for the better, just different to encourage sales. don't confuse mfa w/ melos. mfa had some prime stuff, melos i'm not so sure. (i still have an arc sp10II, 18 years old, running strong and have not heard anything that has tempted me to replace it.)

I've owned the AI Mod 3 and 3a and I think they are both fairly priced on the used market.
Art

Without letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak, there will be a new Bruce Moore preamp coming out next year, that will be affordable and have some exciting design features. This is sort of inside info, so I can't talk alot about it right now, but at the right time, I will do some in-depth posting about it. Right now, I am using an MFA Magus that has been factory modified, and it is real nice. The MFA and Counterpoint stuff is a real good value right now, but it should be re-capped.

Thanks for the responses.Well that $550 MFA I saw was bypassed (for now) as I was first in ona posting for the Korus Eclispe.$1200 made me jump.Decent reveiws not just in the French press but elsewhere as well.Not that many preamps have dual inputs for seperate MM and MC sections.I guess maybe if I decide to keep only my Aries/12.5 and get some extra arm tubes than it won't be an issues and I would have prefered the adjustable loading on the Counterpoint 5000 (which had seperate MM and MC inputs but the cover had to be taken off to do it).But if I get a multi arm or just a second deck well it'd supposed to have a superb hybrid phono section so there I've saved even more dough than buying say and EAR with a cheaper rig.But bottom line this was this was a 4 year old $3500 pre that came up at a price where you just kick yourself for not having been quick on the draw.As far as Drawbacks go it needs the two pre-amps supplied.Why two?There are primary functions which only can be done via remote.We'll see about that one.But headphone,dual inputs,impressive supplied issolation points and cups well if it had a mono switch and phase I would have many of the ergonomics I'd design in myself.Anyway appreciate the feedback and in maybe a month I'll submit a review of the rig.
Cheers!
Chazz