Eliminating spade connectors, upgrading bits, soldering all of it in

@kymanor1 

"Shocking!  No one with really good equipment would do this.  Value just went to ZERO!!"

Dang, it’s hard to argue against logical points. But, as the elderly gentleman said after a desperate attempt to find a restroom ... "Depends."

Being a "car guy", I’d like to draw some parallels, if I may.  There’s "showroom stock" with everything intact that was there the day the car was built.  "Personalized" where the owner enhances the vehicle in some way.  Usually performance options, but often includes comfort, handling ... AND ... safety upgrades.  Then, finally, there’s "modified" where all the "rules" are off the table and you take a cutting torch or hammer to existing metal if they get in the way of ultimate objectives.  The most popular group is "personalized" for many reasons.  Mainly, someone loves the car, but wants to go faster/quicker, stop shorter, and stay flat in the curves while those fat(er) tires grip the road.  A little "ginger bread" added -- cool wheels, custom paint, etc. makes the vehicle uniquely "yours." A KEY factor at this level is the ability to return to "showroom stock" at some point of decide to do so, provided they didn’t give away that old 2bbl intake manifold, etc.

Personally, I’m in the "personalized" category.  Yes, I like to hear "good noises" when I get on it.  But, primarily, I don’t want to find my self on a wet street with 4-wheel drum brakes and skinny bias ply tires.  My "hill to die on" is NOT the preservation of a particular marque, but the preservation of myself, and those I care about when enjoying MY hobby -- in traffic.

While "showroom stock" represents the high mark for market value, I’ve also found that professionally built, and well-documented, "personalized" vehicles come very close to those pure, unmolested, versions.  I also believe this depends on the price class of the product. For example, the ’Holy Grail" vehicles -- those valued at, say, $250k and above would appeal exclusively to purists and/or investors.  Those valued at less than that may have some devaluation, say 20%, for professional builds.  The 20% penalty may be money well spent for those who actually DRIVE the cars and thrash them on occasion.  Or, want to pack up their significant others to provide the safest, most comfortable transport from Point "A" to Point "B." 

An insurance salesmen once told me: :If you can afford to take the hit, don’t buy insurance."  Adhering to this line of reasoning, related to "personalization" : "If you can afford to take the hit, enjoy the ride and don’t worry about the depreciation."

So, yes, this is an audio forum, so it’s time to take it back to music/equipment.

The goal of the "modder" is not to paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but to deliver the performance the original designer intended IF freed up from the burden of operating efficiencies, infield service considerations, time constraints, and material costs. We operate under "Signature Systems" badge in our little, part-time service/performance mod business.  When we are finished with a project, the tech signs off on a document attesting to the fact that he followed the process exactly as prescribed.  I would like to believe that our professional "mods" would have minimal impact on "market value."  But, this is hard to say because our customers will need plastic surgery to get the smiles off their faces when we deliver the finished project.  They have NO intention of selling them -- ever!  And, by the way, our "personalized" mods can be reverted to "showroom stock" in many cases.

So, to wrap this up:

Spend the next decade taking your enjoyment of music (with your current gear) to levels that you had never imagined?  Or, not have your portfolio dinged up and bit because you had the audacity to yank stuff out of the box that made it sound worse?

To "borrow" the quote from the insurance guy: "If you can afford to take the hit from the mods, DO THEM!!" If not, then wipe off your equipment with a soft cotton diaper daily to protect your investment.  Is your "hill to die on" the protection of the marque (and, your investment)? Or is that "hill to die on" to provide the most engaging musical experience you can have in your home -- without reservation, or compromise?

Like the analogy to cars, I'm exactly the same in that I like to personalize my leisure or fun vehicles. As for value/worth I just recently sold a judiciously modified Coyote engine Mustang, I received exactly what I had paid for the car four years earlier, and the purchaser was none other than a Ford power train engineer!  My nephew recently saw car at local car meet, guy is proud of car, left all my modifications intact.

And I've sold a number of my judiciously modified audio gear over the years and there has always been a purchaser who valued my modifications and paid what I considered fair value. 

Why people defer to OEM's for so many products is beyond me, people just assume manufacturers have their best interests in mind, this especially in higher priced goods. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't, I can only offer that one should look under the hood, educate yourself on what is quality and what isn't. 

I can only offer that one should look under the hood, educate yourself on what is quality and what isn’t. 

@sns 

You’re right of course, however that’s not a trivial ask!

@waytoomuchstuff 

The car analogy doesn’t quite fit hifi for a number of reasons, however there is no denying that restomods now fetch eye-watering amounts of money, whereas 20 years ago you’d have been lucky to get (some of) your parts money back and thrown in your hundreds and hundreds of hours of work for free. I think that upwards trend started when retired oral surgeons from California started pouring small fortune into 356 Outlaw builds, but I digress. In any event, it’s a good trend, in my opinion at least.

Shocking! No one with really good equipment would do this. Value just went to ZERO!!

@kymanor1 

Respectfully, the only thing that went to zero is your credibility

...assuming you weren't jesting? You can't always tell in an online venue.

@sns Why people defer to OEM’s for so many products is beyond me, people just assume manufacturers have their best interests in mind, this especially in higher priced goods. Maybe they have, maybe they haven’t, I can only offer that one should look under the hood, educate yourself on what is quality and what isn’t. 

imo, 90% of the mainstream folks out there play it safe, and it makes really good sense for them if they are not hands-on nor want to explore or understand the benefits of upgrades, or how to explain it all.

BTW, I formerly designed and built (as a side hobby) hand built one-off custom cars, some vintage race theme cars - along with several friends. Putting a Coyote in a vintage 60s Mustang, or an LS in a ’59 Corvette is something none of us would have done in the past, and now its common (as we all see now days). What’s shocking is my buddy sold his all orginal GT390 FE 1967 Mustang for $90k, top $, and yet the all new restomodded version of the same car with a Coyote all updated with Coyote, modern suspension, brakes, fetching $280k now. 

Different strokes for different folks and wealthy buyers who can buy a fully modernized version, some of this does cross over to audio gear. One pair of my monoblock tube amps all updated now with new Nichicon Power Caps and Mundorf Silver-Gold EVO caps sounds quite amazing compared to its original self that was built to a price-point by the manufacturer, quote, "to keep price down". Yep, gotta draw the line somewhere, and that makes sense to get customers to pay for and buy your products. A starting point for some, not the end game perhaps.  

Modders and DIY folks are cut from a different cloth, as we well know. That’s okay, and whatever makes people feel safe, or better - good for them. :) 

When, a statement is started with "Respectfully" it usually means no respect.  That's fine.  Like most of us here, been around with this audio thing for decades.  maybe I should have said in my experience I have never seen anyone that has spent tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on audio equipment that would do this DIY mod.  Your equipment value, warranty, resale, would be gone.  To me, many people would just get better equipment vs do this.  Speaker alone are thousands. I have about 75K invested and that is pennies compared to many of the systems on this forum.  Would you guys really do this vs just getting better stuff?