Audio Research LS-7 LS7 upgrades suggestions

-Caps - 30% increase or just different but not better
-Diodes - 30% increase
-Fuse - 10% increase
-Damping chassis etc... 2 -5% increase
-New footers - 2 -5% increase
-Power cable - 5 - 10% increase
-Replacing Potentiometer with like a TKD or better than the basic Alps or nobel whatever it is in the unit can be a - 15% increase
-RCA's - depending on Resistance, if you go with a new gen WBT or something maybe a 2 - 5% increase

All this depends on how that unit reacts with the selection of new parts vs. another unit. Also how easy this unit is to work on, and how many values you can see or figure out on the parts to actually replace them.

Some are more effective in certain flavors, some are not. Tubes are easy, try them, but that's gonna cost you as much or worse drive you crazy buying NOS and not finding a happy spot!

Thank you all for the great suggestions. So far, it appears that the two simplest upgrades I should do now are the diodes and fuse (???).

Dustin

Elevick has an excellent point about chasing too much money after mod's etc on a modest, 'budget'(for ARC), preamp.

Apart from posting how much money you are willing to commit so you can get some more specific guidance, you might like to tell folks what you mean by 'taking the unit to the next level'. Some things are do-able, some things are not, some things are cheap, some things not. It helps if you can critique your LS7 and pin down exactly what you would like to improve.

Don't know if Diodes would be simplest, that is a pretty tedious and small component in the power supply to remove depending on how good you are with soldering and cleaning the board etc... I am not familiar with how difficult it will be in your unit specifically depending on the layout.

Fuse should be easy, anything else beyond that or Tubes that just plug in like the power cord, unless its a hard wire not an IEC will take an experienced Tech. or really good DIY solder guy.

Good luck

I don't want to spend more than about $300 - $500 for the upgrades. Because the LS7 is a "budget" component in the ARC product lines, I thought that perhaps I can replace some of the "budget" parts and improve the sound. But I don't want to go crazy and spend 10X more than what I paid for the LS7 (I bought the LS7 for $300). My skillset is limit to soldering only, so beyond that, I will probably won't attempt.

Newbee, the LS7 is still being shipped to me, so I don't know how it sounds yet.

Thanks for all the suggestions b/c I am sure other LS7 owners might want to do the same upgrades.