Someone please explain the logic of upgrades

The logic of upgrades is to separate you from more of your money.

Sugar, if you believe that, why do you participate here? Perhaps just or sell or buy things? Do you believe that the possible sonic character of, say, coupling capacitors, is audible? Or do you believe that everything that measures the same sounds the same?

I believe that EVERYTHING makes a difference in the sound. Whether you or I or anyone else can HEAR those differences is another question.

As 2 of us have alluded to, all these companies have to SELL components at a profit to stay in business, and the lower the purchase price, the more they sell. If someone else wants a premium version, I hope the manufacturer can and will accommodate them. Doing it this way makes the majority of those sold more affordable.

It's a great hobby, huh!
.

You are also forgetting a point. If the company uses the best upgrades for its 2.000$ amp than how is he going to sell his 5.000$ or 20.000$ reference amps. 5.000$ amp should sound clearly better than 2000$ amp in to justify its additional cost. So they need to produce clear-cut sound difference levels between their 2.000$ - 5.000$ - 10.000$ -20.000$ models. They know that today a very wisely upgraded 2000$ amp can sound like a stock 10.000$ amp easily if not better.

parkcaka

Gee Jeffreybehr I was kidding.....There is some truth in it though......

As others have said; the price point is important. Supply is also a factor. Some parts are not in large enough supply to mass produce enough of an item. But they are available for the few who want to upgrade it further.

Ease of manufacture also comes into play. Labor is a big cost.

To specifically respond to the Audible Illusions, it was a "Class A" component to begin with and is a lot better than most give it credit for being. It is pretty "Tricked" out as it is and Art Ferris has used very, very fine parts. Not knowing exactly which AI you have, the M3A's volume controls were discreet resistors so this eliminates the potentiometers. The coupling caps in the output stage can be switched out. The ouput jacks are of very fine quality already. I cannot recall any wire in the signal path.
I feel manufacturers research the product at its price point and get the most out of it. You can ticker with things and they may genuinely change the sound but then you have to ask "Is it for the better or just different?"
Tube rolling with the AI's will change performance more than some other preamps and this is where I would stay with this preamp.
Art ferris has these preamps sounding as good as they are going to get with their circuit designs.
It kinda goes with changing caps in speakers. Yes you can change the sound but are you capable of making the adjustments for the difference in series impedance and other parameters that actually change the crossover points with a change in parts?
Yes, they're certain mods that do improve performance. Steve McCormack makes a living at it. They're upgrades for CD players that work wonders but at a cost. It is all product dependent. Some products just aren't worth the upgrade. Most well designed products to begin with are hard to fault. The AI falls into this category.