Modified equipment...

I Agree Chelillingworth. If I was a skeptic I would even say that the industry has a real interest in folks not doing mods because, if they do not, it keeps things under their control and also keeps the whole thing so unknown and mysterious. If you stop thinking about buying and start thinking tweaking you will find that audio (for the most part) is a mature technology and state secrets are few (at all but the very highest end.) Upgrades, even on pretty good stuff, are painfully obvious and inexpensive.

I don't think you can make one general rule.

I think that a lot of people shy from modified gear because of uncertainty about the gear. Big Companies do not spend all that advertising $$$ creating brand recognition for nothing. The sad part of this is that most of the time advertisisng is a greater cost than parts for the piece. I do not know of any studies but I believe that a modification will cause most folks to shy away and therefore limit ( not necesarily fatal) your secondary market. Just a hunch.

That being said I would not shy away from any modifieid gear if I know who did the work and can talk to them. I like to tweak myself and I think the best values are in tweaked equipment if you know what you are looking for. Just improving the caps to your crossovers to your tweeters, for example, will do wonders. You can't believe the junk that is used in very expensive stuff (7-10k range). Far more important than interconnects or wire from my listening.. at a fraction of the cost. Same is true with amps too.

I really do not agee w/ rock virgo re designers. Companies are under big pressure to cut costs and they do just that. They spend huge amounts on ads convincing us otherwise. The designers are under the bean counter's thumb. I do agree with him that a lot folks will shy away from what they do not really understand and not buy modified unless they know you.

I do not have trouble selling an occasional modified piece locally because people know me. I do not think I would want to have to sell lots of modified stuff though.

If you want to keep a piece and know the modifier - buy it. I have heard old tweaked Dynaco ST70s (that's right- the 40 year old junk coming through Audigon for 250-$400) that will compare with most anything new at 10-20 times the price. You have to put a few hundred into it of course.

Nice thing is you get something unique too!

Just an opinion.

well...never say never. I've gotten my money out of mods. You would never do it to some pieces just bc. of warranty. For many pieces it's not so bad and is often very efective. You will probably never sell it to a retailer like HellosimplyMusic.

It's funny how these topics very so much from group to group. This forum is based at secondary retail site and maybe folks just think that way. You go some places and mods are just taken for granted, every one mods and it's almost just taken for granted. I don't know - if you want sound - and you know a qualified person, it's a no brainer if you ask me. Granted, I do not hang with folks spending 50k for their systems, but quite a few sound like they do.