Are some of us losing our minds over upgrades??

When something is built to a price point, a mod can make sense. When something is a result of the manufacturer modding their own line with better parts and circuit revisions, it makes less sense as most of the work is already done.

Sony has reintroduced the XA5400ES due to demand and from what I can glean, it's still the same machine. What I don't understand is why since Marantz tweeks their existing lines, at not much cost and passes the benefits on to the listener.
I think Sony blew it if they didn't improve anything on a years old design that is past it's life cycle.

As for what others have pointed out when it comes to resale value, I, too, don't buy with that in mind. It's always based on how it sounds.

All the best,
Nonoise

As fate would have it, a lot of the mods to players these days include such things as the $400 Audio Magic Pulse Gen ZX, damping of caps, damping the transport, blackening around the laser, WA Quantum Chips, Bybee Filters and other exotica that haven't found their way into the sometimes backward design toolkit of high end manufacturers, most likely due to cost considerations, assuming they've even heard of them. You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.

It is not necessarily about the sound or equipment. It is a mindset, a personality trait with a propensity to want to make things better than stock, because it is fun and it appeals to that part of the brain that makes us feel good in knowing we have something "special", or one of kind or whatever. We just want something that the rest of the herd does not have because we might think that is part of the happiness formula.

Stereos, cars, bicycles, telescopes, computers, every hobby imaginable has an aftermarket bin of parts and stuff.

Remember Tim the Tool man who turbo charged his ride on lawn mower :)

People upgrade because they believe they can get $10K sound from a $1K player with $2K worth of upgrades. I wish it were true.

The only piece I ever had modified was a Fender Blackface Super Reverb guitar amp. In the early 80's, I was playing with a few guitarists who had to be the loudest one, you know the type. We were sort of purists using no effects or pedals. You know, "my only effect is the cord between my guitar and amp" type. Anyway, I purchased the amp in very beat up condition, not collector quality. My amp tech first made it "healthy". I then asked if he could do more. He asked for a couple of cassette tapes of a type of sound I was looking for. One I supplied was early Soundgarden album. After his work, I would play through the clean channel. (the reverb and tremolo would work with that) I then could throw a toggle switch hidden in the back and overdrive into the other channel. All controls available now!! Variety of sound variations. Normally, I would turn up to match the other guitarist, and of course, theirs would then go up further. They would finally reach an end where mine had plenty more! The REAL FUN was that I never let them in on my amp's secret. They all wondered how my amp could get so POWERFUL and DIRTY!! HA
And I never did blow the original speakers.