just a few additional thoughts for your consideration @hilde45 as you explore this element of hifi-nerd-geekdom :)
in my experience, by far the best context in which to mod high end gear is if -- a) you are committed to keeping the piece of gear for the long term, and b) you yourself are quite experienced in disassembling, reassembling gear, soldering, desoldering, and choosing components - second best way is to have a well trusted, highly cost effective local tech to do the skilled labor
reasons being
-- it costs something non trivial to ship/ship back a stereo component, with attendant damage risk in shipping
-- when soldering in even passive components, there is some risk of damaging the pc board or making other internal connections frail, with unforeseen issues, thus the skill, diligence and experience of the tech is absoutely crucial here
-- trading away a modded piece can be problematic (not always, but sometimes) ... even if you ’restore it back to stock’ to resell, that should be disclosed, and then the market for such a unit will be reduced compared to honestly saying a piece is ’factory original, never altered’
-- there is indeed a market for modded units by well-known modders - dan wright, smc/mccormack, vsei, great northern, and so on from yesteryear -- perhaps bill/grannyring has achieved that level of ’celebrity’ for his mhdt dac mods, but in my experience specific modders become well known for specific modded units, that experienced buyers will honor by paying top dollar prices upon resale
-- of course, modding a name brand component invariably voids any factory warranty, to state the obvious
with the above, i have always been very cautious and reticent about undertaking mods on well known, high value units (i know i don’t solder well, i don’t trust myself to do it to a ’pro’ quality and problem solve issues that may arise) - in fact, i greatly prefer to buy them at a signfiicant discount used rather than pay for the mods to be done, and in the rare instance where i have changed things ’under the hood’, i pretty much resign myself to treating the unit as a ’its mine forever’ unit, or a throwaway if things don’t go 100% right
i know my approach above is rather conservative, and may well elicit ’ aww c’mon man!!’ responses from others who are much more into modding gear, but i just wanted to share my own perspective and experience
i know this is all a fun, and exploratory journey for you -- i hope this helps you and others to hear a perspective from one dedicated enthusiast who has been at it for some time ...
