Sounds reasonable to me... you can open it up and see if the innards
look clean where the mods were done.

Quite often the parts used in otherwise reasonably well designed
commercial equipment can be improved upon...

_-_-bear

razak wrote:

What are the pros and cons of buying a modified amplifier?

I'm about to acquire a "second edition" Cyrus One integrated amp that
has been extensively modified by an owner who has extensive knowledge of
electronics. His description of the modifications made are as follows:

"Volume control make is Bourn, a lot better than than the original
carbon type (made by ALPS). RCA connecters are gold plated (one pair),
silver wiring for all inputs. At least six capacitors are bypassed by
Phillips Polypropylene Capacitors for faster, wider sound. Another 6-8
capacitors changed to Philips too. Headphone stage is disabled to
simplify the circuit and reduce unnecessary noise. Uses the latest super
fast recovery diodes. All the modifications were done over the past two
years (stage by stage), so there is no need to worry about reliability,
lifespan or sound deterioration."

According to a review in the Absolute Sound, the Cyrus One excels in
detail retrieval, and I wonder if modifying the amp will improve this
trait, or change it completely? I've not heard the Cyrus One in its
original guise, so I won't be able to make any comparisons.

On the other hand, if you wanted to modify any hi-fi hardware, you'd do
it to make it sound better, wouldn't you?