Anyone with Manley Chinook use a custom Power Cord?

the Chinook sounds very clean in stock form. but when you insert the discrete op amps, the signal is really cleaned up. it makes the stock parts sound out of focus. Correct, they are not in the signal path, but do control the voltage going to the JFETs in the first stage. The other big improvement on the Chinook is to replace all the MC and MM load resistors (located on the back PCB bolted to the rear panel) with Vishay naked or Vishay VSR bulk foil resistors.  

That may be more than the normal user may want to undertake. The Synergistic upgrades are solid and (for real). 

This requires no revisions that will void a warranty.

@slaw I agree that I don’t want to do any soldering or anything that would void warranty. I can see how they could help, but I like warranty! At the same time, I’m not convinced by a $150 fuse. It could work, but hard for me to conceive. I’d try it for $30 but not $150.

@mattmiller 👍 yep. I ordered a signal cable digital PC. Should be here in a few days.

@johnss this sounds interesting.  And, I think it’s more likely to make a difference using the MC setting, as I am. Since it drives the higher gain input, I can see your point and understand why it could help. I think I will try that next. Did you get the dual or single op amps?

 @johnss  I think you mean the duals. Those suckers are $80 each?!  So that’s almost $200 after tax and shipping.  Is the difference that great?  

For that much I could buy a set of NOS tubes, and they are in the signal path, so can have a huge impact. 

The stock opamps are about 30 cents. So maybe something that costs around $10 to $15 would be a nice improvement without going overboard. What do you think?

If you are reading this in the future, this is an interesting read about op amps. I’m not expressing an opinion, only sharing what I found. 

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/op-amps-myths-facts.html

I bought a new new set of tubes to roll, and the signal cable power cable. After I get those going I will report back... and I’ll decide about the op amps.