Not everyone has unlimited budgets like some of the audio snobs that
seem to hang around here. Perhaps the original poster is a high
school student, and the Onkyo was handed down to him, and now he wants
to do these mods as part of his high school electronics class as his
term project? Who cares if it sounds better or not. Haven't you ever
heard of someone wanting to do something for the educational value,
for the experience, or just because of no reason at all, just fun?

Not only that, but what if his so-called improvement makes him THINK it
sounds better? Isn't that in many cases the same thing as sounding better?
After all, the human auditory system was never designed to be simply a
measuring device.