To mod or not to mod a Sony SCD1

I used to be a big time modder, but moved away from it completely and here is why. The econmoics don't work. You will take a hit of 75% on most any mod - i.e. you spend $1000 bucks on a mod and you loose $750 when you resell the modded piece. If you had spend the $1,000 bucks on a better stock component and bought it smart, you loose $250 at most when you resell. So it is far more sensible to save the mod money and buy better components.

All this would be moot if a $1,000 mod takes a $1,000 piece to $5,000 performance levels. Despite all sort of claims of giant killer mods, I never personally experienced one myself - I got more sound quality improvement per $$$ spend from buying better components than modding.

Bottom line. Get higher grade stock components instead of spending money on mods.

Case in point of modding economics. You buy a a "build like a tank" $1500 SCD-1 and do $3000 worth of mods. Your $4500 modded player now has a resale value of $2500.

Alternatively, you can buy a used "build like a tank" Emm labs CDSA se for $5000. In a fire sale, resale value is still $4500. Do the math.

Now, your modder will tell you the modded Sony with "trounce" the EMM labs player - this type of claims are not consistent with my experience. Even if the modded Sony is marginally better, I'd rather have a $500 writeoff on my balance sheet than $2000.