Are some of us losing our minds over upgrades??

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.

Thanks to all who have chimed in on this thread. It was very informative, and hopefully made us all aware of the pro/cons of modifying existing equipment Does anyone have the link for Modwright or John Modwright. I want to see what he can do for a Rega Apollo. Thanks, Jim