You would be a whole lot better off if you learned to solder and did the work yourself as it is a job to rebuild one of these as all the resistors, caps, wiring, pot and more should be replaced....What you'll end up with is a very good unit with huge dynamics that is highly musical....I still use my SP3A-1 as a reference and plug it in from time to time to recall my life thirty years ago when I bought the unit....The unit is just fun to listen to....
Would you re-furbish an old ARC SP3a-1 ?
I have an old (circa 1974) ARC SP3a-1 preamp which basically does not work. It had some "un-documented" modifications done to it about 15 years ago. Is it worth the price to have ARC restore this classic and make it into an SP3c ? (The stated price for the upgrade is about $900, but they may charge more due to the un-documented modifications.) How would this then compare sonically to newer tubed preamps ?