We're working on the next project now and it's such an absolute joy to work with the MS-16 now that ALL of the channels are working and sounding equally as good from top to bottom...the freshly re-lapped heads made an incredible difference to the sound and once we get though this first one, I'll post a link to it for you guys.
Worn heads can be compensated for in the calibration process and then in the mixing process by eq'ing the hell out of stuff to make it sound like it should have in the first place. Now I'm noticing that the high end is back without tweaking the 10Khz shelving eq on the mixer and the bottom end is just cleaner and tighter somehow! ... all of this adding up to less processing and less noise.
Good to hear that your deck is all OK. I don't know what they sell for in the US but there's a few MS*- decks for sale out here, asking prices range from the low $2000s up to around $3000AU.......US $ is approx., 75% of that.
All I need now is for evm to post some pics or info on cold/dry solder joints, at least then I may know what to look for in my ATR.