Anyone had the equipment customized ?

My tube amp and linestage were from a builder that only does built-to-order units.  For the linestage, I could specify whether it would actually include a phono-stage, whether the output would be capacitor coupled or transformer coupled (or both options available), the type/brand of input and output transformers, etc.  I chose a preamp (includes phono-stage), transformer inputs and outputs, I asked for remote control of volume (something the builder had not offered before), and I requested a balance control (implemented by utilizing two big Davin controls).  The custom amplifier has matching/complementary transformer inputs.  I initially got the amp with Langevin input transformers, but later, I went with Western Electric input transformers (the amp is essentially a rebuilt Western Electric 133a amplifier).

My speaker has been modified by me.  The midrange horn and compression driver have been replaced by a vintage Western Electric horn and compression driver.  This was easy to do because the horn in my system sits on top of the woofer cabinet on a totally open platform  The replacement horn actually looks better than the original because its 24" width exactly matches the width of the woofer cabinet (the original horn is smaller and weird looking).  I added an L-pad attenuator to control the output of the horn driver.  I will be doing additional modifications, including a totally new (but made out of vintage parts) crossover and top notch wiring for the speaker (probably Audio Note Sogon wire).

I suspect there’s a lot of overlap among customizing, modification, upgrading components (like capacitors and fuses) and tweaks. I once owned the World’s most extensively Modded Oppo 103, trust me, you wouldn’t have recognized it. After Ric at EVS modded it I really went to town on it. You can probably guess some of things I did, beyond what Ric did, maybe not. Some things I did, however, were definitely beyond the scope of this discussion. Perhaps, beyond the pale. The deeper you go the higher you fly.

" the deeper you go the higher you fly ". Right. But you also got to land safely.
Larry, that's extensive modifications/customizing. Impressive.

Back when I was much younger and was just starting to build a system with separate components with my first pair a Magnepans, I couldn’t keep my hand off the soldering iron. I would mod everything and with the modest equipment I had in those days it improved what I had. Did several mods for friends that actually had much better gear than me at the time.

With what I own today I would never dream of modding my equipment now, and honestly it sounds so good I’d be afraid I’d mess up the sound. Modding today for me is cables, isolation devices, room treatment, power receptacles and etc. Used to build my own cables when I could build better than I could afford, but again happy with what I have. One thing I have done inside my gear is change out the fuses but that’s as far as I’ll go.

Oh, if I picked up an old Adcom amp, it’s game on.