Yamaha HX-10000 phonostage, any views?

Theophile, can you refer me/us to actual opinions of the HX10000 phono offered by owners of the unit, to be found on Audiokarma? I can only find one thread in which one guy says he owns one which causes some others to drool with envy. Thanks for any help. Meantime I found one comment on WBF to the effect it sounded “dark” to that listener. I unearthed no formal reviews of it. “Dark” fits with my general impression of vintage SS Japanese gear that the sound is “syrupy”. Of course, my experience is limited, and I’ve never heard the HX10000, although I have heard the Yamaha C1 (I think that’s the model designation for their second best ever phono), and it sounded dark. I remember thinking that I would like to get inside that chassis and upgrade some capacitors and maybe resistors and maybe transistors to see what the C1 could actually do. I think certain pieces of Audio gear, both tube and solid state, both Japanese and American in origin, have become "legendary". And that fact alone artificially enhances our opinion of those items in particular that we've never actually seen or heard and causes us to spend large sums of money in the marketplace, to recapture some magic that maybe isn’t there and maybe in some cases never was. I am certainly not immune to that form of audiophilia, as I own four vintage Japanese direct drive turntables. And I own a pair of Beveridge 2SW speakers from 1980-ish. And the list goes on from there. What I’m saying is that there may be great potential to be developed in the HX10000, but a new owner of an original untampered with example should be aware that there may be work to be done to develop that potential or even to bring the unit up to its OEM peak capabilities.

Correction. The vintage Yamaha phono stage I did hear extensively is the C2, not the C1.  Apparently the C1 is an integrated amplifier in their same high end product line.

The Pioneer Exclusive C7 I was thinking could be won for approx' £300 was sold in auction for £1600.  Hey Ho, back to the Nicely Figured Walnut Side Panels with Polished Brass Top Face for the Pre Amp's casing. 

Yamaha C1 and C2 (and C2x) are complete preamplifiers. Yamaha hardly released any separate phono stages.

The Exclusive C-7 would have been a bargain buy at 1600 UK pounds.

Lew the names of three who had/have HX-10000 I can recall are 808 State and imfree and Mark B.  Correction Mark B has the rest of the Centennial collection but not the HX. There could be a couple more. You’ll need to join AudioKarma and ask them yourself. I was just pointing out where the information can be found from the horse’s mouth. Not relaying from the horse.

Also 'Dark' is relative to what one is comparing it to/ running it with.