Hi, with regards to tweaking, I find the following to be perfectly valid ways of changing/improving the sound. I say changing/improving only because we all prefer different things:
1) Power cords.
2) Tube rolling.
3) Vibration Isolation.
4) Power conditioning.
5) analog interconnects.
These are all things that anyone can do with their SWL 9.0SE of course. We still do offer the Bybee upgrades, but only direct (not through dealers). We also experimented with Goldpoint and DACT CT-2 stepped attenuators and basicly there is some improvement in low-level detail, but you give up the remote control. Most people are not willing to give that up for such a small improvement. As a result, we stopped offering this as an option. The rest of the parts are top quality and there really isn't anything else that I found worthwhile upgrading. The Black Gate upgrade in the main supply did make a difference, but they are very expensive, harder to source and time consuming.
To be honest, we have been working hard to just keep up with orders and building stock units. The custom work took too much time away from this, so most of the custom upgrades were dropped.
With regards to vibration isolation, we do have a product that we just started offering. We are importing a product from a company in the UK, called the 'Isofeet'. These vibration isolation feet are extremely well engineered and built and quite simply provide exceptional value in terms of both performance and aesthetics (in my opinion AND my wife's!?!?). Current SWL 9.0SE units (pretty much all but some of the first made), have three M6-threaded female holes in the bottom of the chassis. These will accept any isolation footer with an M6 thread - pretty much all footers with male stud use the M6 thread. The Isofeet are easily user-installable, with two being installed in the front of the chassis and one in the rear. We are offering them as 'tuned' sets. The reason for this is that the weight distribution is not even across the bottom of the unit - obviously the power transformer is the single-heaviest component inside. As a result, we tune each footer to the right spring tension and label them as to where they are to be mounted on the SWL 9.0SE. The cost is $200/set and you can read more information about them in the current issue of Tone Audio -
www.tonepublications.com. I will have pictures on our website soon also. Please call us for information or to place orders for the Isofeet.
I feel that the sonic benefits include improved low-level detail, air, separation and improved soundstage. Although we do take special care to damp many elements inside the 9.0SE, not the least of which being the tube board, there is still a great improvement found in isolating the entire unit.
We are also going to start offering these as an upgrade option as part of our mods. The only catch being that we will need to machine holes in the bottom of the player at the time the mods are done, to accomodate the male threaded studs. Basicly, they will be bolted to the bottom of the player and tuned for the specific unit in question. Pricing for this upgrade mod are still TBD, but I expect it will be $300/set, installed when done as part of another mod.
Our next product offering will be the SW
LP 9.0SE preamp ($3995) with built-in phono and outboard supply that will be available through dealers after the Rocky Mountain show in Oct. We will also have at this time, a SWP 9.0SE (standalone phono stage - $2895) that will be available at the same time.
It is my intent to make it attractive to our customers to be able to upgrade within the ModWright family of products. Please stay tuned as we continue to increase our product line under the ModWright Instruments Inc. name.
Thanks,
Dan W.
