Thank you Viridian. Interesting idea. How many hours of assembly does the Smash (or the TSGG) take, and does one have to be a very skilled with the solder gun?
Get an Acurus L10 or R11. These are known as good quality pres that have good mil spec components and can be upgraded easily and with great return on investment. Mine cost me $250 used. Do a Google search and you will find reviews on them and that they are popular among budget audio lovers.
I've owned 3 of the four and seen inside the Jolida,PAS 3 and Bottlehead are easy to fix, odds are great you will end up throwing the others away because they will surely need re-capping etc and you won't like the price , assuming you even find some one to do it.
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