Droplet Cd player - tweaks, mods or upgrades?

Google: VSE Terra Firma... best bang for buck upgrade you can do to your player

Consider resale value. I personally will not buy modified stereo equipment. I even want the original power cord.

I had a droplet a cpl of years ago. I loved the way it looked but was not enamoured with its sound. I asked 3 well known modders about it. All 3 told me they would have to gut it completely and start from scratch. I sold it and moved on. I think the bang for your buck in modded gear is very high, but resale will kill you every time.

Consonance components in general are prone to fail catastrophically.

I'm making the presumption you have a Droplet 5.0, and not the mini Droplet... The best thing you can do for your Droplet 5.0 is to make sure you keep good 6H30 Supertubes in it. In fact, make that a priority above anything else you're thinking about.

I've seen two of these units (about 80 were imported into the USA & Canada) fail in the worst of ways when one of their tubes shorted, and another experience a similar episode when what is believed by the owner to have been the inrush of current after the lights came back on during a power outage. In these cases, I can assure you, you'd have the opportunity to as Leatherneck1812 said, "have to gut it completely and start from scratch."

Figure on the entire power supply printed circuit board (obviously, a proprietary component), possibly the power transformer (another proprietary part), several ancillary parts (easily sourced), along with a complete teardown of the machine to allow for doing the work, plus, of course, reassembly. If you're out of warranty, at typical labor rates, you'll surely exceed the cost of a replacement Droplet on the used market.

DISCLAIMER: I was the former importer/distributor for Opera Audio/Consonance products in the North American market.