From reading your question and revealing your impressions it pretty much mirrors my experiences and biases for the most part. I believe your analog front end could certainly be improved upon but at what price and are you willing to pay it?
I am of the firm belief that electronics HAVE NOT improved that much over the past 25 years, at least I can’t hear it. Passive components that make up those electronics certainly have in many cases. I currently have two vintage era components and they are have both been upgraded with newer parts, including capacitors, resistors, diodes, wiring etc with dramatic improvements. Of course the key here is starting with components that were good to begin with in which case you certainly have. Digital on the other hand HAS improved and might be the biggest bang for the buck improvement you can make.
Sometimes "better" and "improved" are really synonyms for "preferred". In my particular case I definitely prefer my upgraded 25 year old preamp compared to 5 different newer ones I’ve listened to in my system 3 of which are current. The upgrades made a big improvement but I wouldn’t have sprung the cost if I didn’t really like what I was hearing to begin with. So that should be the first question you might ask in going forward, do you really like what you have but want to improve on it? In which case it is a lot easier than switching out things to "improve" with a less certain outcome.
The points BDP24 makes are valid as well, some products made in the past would be prohibitively expensive to manufacture today although might be preferred to current offerings. In your case I would focus on less expensive tweeking that could certainly improve on what you have without overspending and see what happens. The key thing I have come to realize is that what at first may seem an improvement may later be seen as an unwelcome intrusion! Things aren’t always what they seem as witnessed by the constant "improvements" that audiophiles strive to achieve. Sustained enjoyment of recorded music should be the end goal and is the only thing that matters in the long run.
I am of the firm belief that electronics HAVE NOT improved that much over the past 25 years, at least I can’t hear it. Passive components that make up those electronics certainly have in many cases. I currently have two vintage era components and they are have both been upgraded with newer parts, including capacitors, resistors, diodes, wiring etc with dramatic improvements. Of course the key here is starting with components that were good to begin with in which case you certainly have. Digital on the other hand HAS improved and might be the biggest bang for the buck improvement you can make.
Sometimes "better" and "improved" are really synonyms for "preferred". In my particular case I definitely prefer my upgraded 25 year old preamp compared to 5 different newer ones I’ve listened to in my system 3 of which are current. The upgrades made a big improvement but I wouldn’t have sprung the cost if I didn’t really like what I was hearing to begin with. So that should be the first question you might ask in going forward, do you really like what you have but want to improve on it? In which case it is a lot easier than switching out things to "improve" with a less certain outcome.
The points BDP24 makes are valid as well, some products made in the past would be prohibitively expensive to manufacture today although might be preferred to current offerings. In your case I would focus on less expensive tweeking that could certainly improve on what you have without overspending and see what happens. The key thing I have come to realize is that what at first may seem an improvement may later be seen as an unwelcome intrusion! Things aren’t always what they seem as witnessed by the constant "improvements" that audiophiles strive to achieve. Sustained enjoyment of recorded music should be the end goal and is the only thing that matters in the long run.