Counterpoint SA-3.1 and 5.1

I have owned at least nine pieces of gear designed and built by Mike Elliott, and as I have posted in other topics here at Audiogon, they are among the best the industry has to offer. All audio equipment has a sonic signature. Assuming you are pleased by the basic design and sound of a piece of gear, it makes perfect sense to upgrade via the designer. As Mike says, there is a direct return in quality of parts, and an opportunity for the originator of the design to tweak any area he wishes to improve. Not only is the price of parts no longer an obstacle in this scenario, there are choices today that were not available at the time the original was assembled. It could be years before the "trickle down" technology of these newer parts find their way into regular production line gear. Considering there are several $10,000. preamps available, the $2,375. price sounds very reasonable to me. Of course everyone must decide what will make them happy.

How will the modified SA-3.1 compare to one of the $10,000.00 pre-amps?

If you are asking me to be the one to comment, I would say the $10,000. unit would be better. I don't think that would be an embarrassment for the SA-3.1 though. As in all things in high end audio, there is almost no limit in what you can spend on your system. The question is do you have the $10,000. to spend, or maybe the $2,375. will make you happy, leaving enough cash to spare for other pieces in the system. I don't think the post was about the ultimate system, rather some reasonable options for a guy that appears to be interested in Counterpoint gear.

Good enough, I was just interested in how good they were after the $2K modification. Some lower priced gear actually does sound much better than those with the high price tag.

As someone that makes a living doing modifications on electronics, it's very easy to take a basic design, alter components in terms of values, parts quality, etc.., re-align & fine tune the new stuff and end up with something completely different. Even though it still looks the same, feels the same, has the same features, chassis & power supply, you would in effect have something that was FAR superior to the original "penny pinched mass produced" model that you started off with.

To add to Albert's comments about starting off with a product that you liked to begin with and then expanding upon it from there, it might not even matter. Through changing components and circuitry, you could take something that you hated and turn it into something that you absolutely love ( or vice-versa ). Just because it is the same basic "box" does not mean it will remain similar in electrical characteristics or sonics. Sean
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