Stand Alone Pres vs. modified pres in console??

[mplnckstrat]

This idea has been nagging me. I bought a Topaz 24/8 about a month ago now. I'm getting pretty comfortable with it, and have decided its time to go visit Steve Magalnick. For those who don't know the name, he is the only Soundtracs tech in the USA. He happens to live only 45 minutes from me here on LI. He's gonna do the -10 to +4 mod for me, and I'm wondering if I should have him hot rod a couple channels for me while the board is opened up, instead of buying stand alone pres. When I spoke to him a few weeks before I pulled the trigger on the board purchase, I seem to remember him mentioning Burr Browns(?) for the master section and a couple channels if I wanted to do it. He said the difference would be immense.
I was hoping some folks here might have experience modding the pres or master section in their board and could give me a sense of how much of an upgrade this would truly be.
Steve was great to talk to, and offered to have me come down and watch him do the work. I also think the quote he gave me was very fair...

 

[manning1]

he sounds like a decent guy to me.
as to how much difference you'll hear. i dont know.
i would just modify a couple of channels and see for yourself.
before doing the rest.
from past experience an upgrade of this nature can sometimes be dramatic on some boards but less so on others.
on some boards just cleaning up the power supply can help.
as can replacing caps with low tcr types and poor resistors with
very low noise metal films. particularly in op amp feedback loops.
it all depends.
just my 2 cents.

 

[Farview]

I have done this to my Ghost. It makes a huge difference. I still have outboard preamps for different flavors but the board sounds great.

 

[xstatic]

personally, if the Soundtracs guy says do the mod, and its affordable, I would do it. PLus it's much safer on that poor little power supply if he does it since he is the one that knows what it will actually handle. The master section mod is something I would definately go for. Then I would do maybe 8 of the 24 channels. I don't think this will totally replace the need ( or want) for outboard, but modding is certainly a cost effective way of adding to the color palette.