So you think the RCA upgrade to change from cracked plastic to quality gold plated rca's is just a way to rip guys off?
The power supply upgrade to clean up the power and stabilize it at + and- 12vdc is a gimmick to take your cash?
The 50 year old dried/drying/drifting up E-caps is unneeded?
The ECO document, which has all the ECO's since your C-4000 left the factory, is unneeded crap too? All just way's to part a fool and his money? whatever.......
Don't like having a new black face plate and handles to give it a facelift?
All i see is a tight wad who may or may not have his gear ready for the 21st century and it may or may not sound all that good. It MAY or may not also be the weak link in your system. Nothing wrong with a good freshening up but if you want to leave it and let nature take over, ebay can provide some fine examples and you can wait till the parts start failing or you can nip it all in the bud............. And, a C-1 is cheaper and easier to work on which IS a concern of many guys looking for a period correct pre that can be done in a weekend.... Try that with a c-4000, they are a bit more to take apart and get back together correctly.
Only if they are actually cracked or failing . . . mine are perfect, and I don't fix that which isn't broken . . . As I clearly stated, the caps in mine are fine . . . (and a lot of the fool in "audiophool" is feel-good stuff that may or may not help. Power supply changes are fine *IF* they improve sound/longevity, for instance (likely not longevity, considering the age with no failures so far). If not, it's money thrown down a hole. ECO's are not "upgrades" - those are factory - not even close to the same thing. And not "cheap" in the slightest, but not gullible either . . . been doing my own work on far, far, more complex stuff for 45 years or so. It's pretty easy between the experience, engineering backgroud, and fully equipped shop to separate the "useful" from the BS . . . (and the audiophool world is *thick* with BS!)
And I have both a C1 as well (I did rework it - it was a mess) and the 4000 in terms of pre's. Bought the parts for the 4000 and got into it, but found no problems, so left it for another day . . .
Also just repaired/reworked a TX11 . . . it *DID* have some hard failed caps . . . changed about 45 . . . but many were still perfectly in spec when they came out as well. Clearly heavily used (display burn in . . . actually bought it dead for $25 to get a new face for mine that got scratched in a move, and decided to have a go at fixing it - success, fwiw, and not just a "parts shotgun" - I can tell you the exact symptoms, failures, and problem components). Mine has much less time on it, and all caps checked were fine (other than memory backup) so did not do "the big job" there yet. (But have BOM's at Mouser for same . . . when it's needed.
My primary take-away here is that anyone that says "you should always . . . " when no problems are seen is wrong likely 50% (or more) of the time. "It depends" is a better mindset.
It's things like replacing unfailed semiconductors with the same type where I call BS . . . replacing known-good with unknown makes no sense . . .
(And I doubt that anyone is claiming that a new faceplate will automagically make the planets realign better, or other similar nonsense . . . not even close to what I am discussing (or trying to)).
It's this "those who stand to profit are always right" (IE Vendors) mindset that makes my a$$ really, really, tired . . . .
