The Devil is in the Cartridge Setup (and a good phone pre)...

Talk and more talk. Mods always reduce resale value unless performed by the manufacturer. I would never buy a piece that I knew was modded by an end user, even if returned to stock. Time and time again arguments are made for doing this, and it’s fine as long as the user appreciates the work they’ve done on it.
But in the market, it’s a fool's errand.

Most of us are in this for the music, not trying to anticipate a market value.   I find your point of view ridiculous considering the opamp ia a plug in device and the OP can at anytime put it back to the ultimate and perfect OEM condition. 

I see this happening more and more often in this forum.  It's getting more and more petty, and the personal attacks are getting out of hand.  OP came in to share his experience, which I found interesting.  I'd like to hear more about the changes due to the OpAmp in the Chinook.  We all make mistakes... kudos to the OP for being man enough to share his mistake.

And, I'd like to hear far FAR less of people calling each other fools (or much worse that I've seen), even if it's prefaced with "all due respect".  Frankly, any time you start with "all due respect", you are about to be disrespectful and you know it.

These kinds of trolls are making the forum less and less fun for me.  Can't we just get back to sharing experiences and stop verbally assaulting one another? Every thread seems to devolve into this kind of drivel after 5 to 10 posts.  Look at the archives, and it wasn't this way in the past.

JBHiller.....her first couple of record albums are good....the last are pretty bad. I think that her producer was after a new sound..(junky) Can hardly understand the lyrics. Her producer was Danger Mouse (I heard they’re an item)....I point the finger to him

The American philosopher D. Davidson wrote an article with
the title ''What  metaphors mean''. The problem with Davidson
like by his 'mentor' Wittgenstein is that they have no theory but what
one would call ''philosophical remarks''. Wittgenstein ''Philosophical
investigations'' are illustration . After remark nr. 1000 one lost or
forget 980 other because an normal person can't remember more than, say, 20. No wonder then that the question ''what are both works
about''? is impossible to answer. According to Davidson metaphors have ''ordinary mening'' or no meaning at all.
So what is the meaning of ''the devil in connection with details''?
To me it means a warning against ''easy statements'' by which
many or some details are overlooked. We can, I think, agree that
''our'' J. Carr knows all the details involved by  cartridge design. 
But this does not apply for the most other members of our forum.
Consider the fact about ''primary fear'' by cartridges regarding
the stylus condition. According to J.Carr this is the least serious
issue by carts because stylus (only) retip will not change the
performance of the cart more than cantilever or suspension
change. Consider suspension change. How many of those can
any retip service get from their supplier and in what quality?
EMT for example has for years as ''achilles tendon'' the suspension.
If an producer is not able to solve such a problem way should 
an retipper do better? I want mention coils because there is
hardly any retipper capable to repair those. But those are ''the
details involved'' among other.  

@soundermn 
I agree. And I thank you for chiming in. 

I have a fairly thick thick skin but the tone and message of folks’ responses more frequently makes me think twice about posting in the first place. I’ve experienced this a lot recently.  

Im really thinking of switching to a different forum. 

When I built stuff DIY, I’ve used those type of forums to better success. People there are kind, helpful and there’s a real sense of unity.  People there treat others like members of a special club. I’ve never received criticism or snarky remarks.  And it’s rare that the OP’s thread gets off topic.