SA-2000 Upgrades

These upgrades for the Counterpoint SA-2000 result in sweeter, more detailed and airier sound, and eliminate the solid-state colorations. They use a class of parts I could never use in production because the normal multiplier used in manufacturing is much higher than I use in my Custom Shop (see "Why Upgrade" for insider's view of the economics of manufacturing for the high-end retail audio market). Without going direct to the consumer, and if I had to provide new chassis and front panels, the cost of a new preamplifier using these parts would have been astronomical.

"I always knew that the upgrade produced a special preamp, but I didn't really appreciate how special until I recently had the opportunity to trial a highly regarded $3000 solid state preamp (name withheld to prevent embarrassment) in my system. The SA-2000 outclassed the solid state preamp in just about every way I could imagine: transparency, tonality and reproduction of harmonics, delineation of instrumental lines, frequency extension, recreation of the soundspace, and natural-ness (liquidity, if you will) of the sound. "

-- Excerpted from John Kittredge's SA-2000 review. Read his full review on the Testimonials page.

"The modified SA-2000 trumps the stock unit . . . in the areas of areas of tonal and timbral rightness, imaging, soundstage breadth and depth and warmth, . . . by a wide margin. Take strings, for example … they’re considerably more delicate, and the woodiness of the instruments more evident. Cymbal brush work evokes a filigreed shimmer previously perceived as near-hash. Instruments and voices-whether playing solo or massed--exhibit significantly greater body, nuanced timbre, and, on well-recorded material, a spooky three-dimensional reality. Bass is tauter, more detailed, perceptively deeper, but even more important from my perspective, corporeal in its presentation. The difference in dynamics-both micro and macro-is night-and-day, and heretofore-congested tuttis now exhale with gusto. Listening room side walls on the verge of disappearing with the stock 2000 have melted away on appropriately-recorded CD's.

"The bottom line? As soon as I can scrape up the cash, my other SA-2000 goes to Michael Elliott for an upgrade."

-- Excerpted from Jim Treanor's SA-2000 review posted on the Audio Asylum website. Read his full review on the Testimonials page.

Audio Stage Upgrades -- This is the place to start -- all the signals go through the audio stage.

Jim Treanor's SA-2000, showing Standard Audio Stage Upgrade.

Standard Audio Stage Upgrade. I replace the tube's grid bias, plate load, and buildout resistors with Caddock Tetrinox film resistors and Mills Non-inductive wirewound resistors, and I upgrade input and output coupling caps to TRT Dynamicaps. I eliminate the field efect transistor from the line stage signal path.

Price for SA-2000 "ASP" Standard Upgrade: $650

Premium Audio Stage Upgrade. Just like the standard LSP upgrade (above), but with TX2575 "naked" Z-foil Vishay resistors, and Continental Capacitor Type A oil-filled capacitors in the power supply bypassing. (New! Was Black Gate WKZ capacitors, but the CC-A capacitors KICK THEIR BUTTS!). This is a richer, more liquid-sounding version of the audio stage upgrade.

Price for SA-2000 "ASP Premium" Upgrade: $1000

SA-2000 "Direct Out" Mod. This is an inexpensive -- higly recommended -- mod you can have done to the audio section. Unless you're planning to drive 100 feet of interconnect, why run the signal through the SA-2000's solid-state output circuit? It colors the sound, adding a noticeable solid-state graininess and hard edge. I bypass the output buffer and install larger coupling capacitors to allow the tube to directly drive your power amplifier.

Price for SA-2000 "Direct Out" Upgrade: Add $110
(add $110 setup fee if not done with either of the audio stage upgrades)

Power Supply Upgrades -- The better the power, the sweeter the sound.

 

The solid-state high voltage power supply in the SA-2000 provides the power the tubes use to amplify the signal. The stock circuit accomplishes the job of regulating the voltage, but sounds substantially better when upgraded. I offer two levels of upgrade for the SA-2000's power supply, for different budgets and listening preferences.

Power Supply Level I Upgrade. Similar to the Line Stage Passives upgrade, the Level I Upgrade improves the many of the power supply's resistors and capacitors, upgrades several solid-state parts with high-gain Zetex transistors, and -- most importantly -- replaces several key electrolytic capacitors with Black Gate capacitors. A very audible improvement in richness and clarity with a greatly reduced transistor edginess.

Price for SA-2000 Power Supply Level I Upgrade: $1250
(Add $110 setup fee to this price if not done with an "LSP" upgrade.)

Power Supply Level II Upgrade. It's like the Level I Upgrade but with better components,and with more components upgraded. The Level I Upgrade cleans up the more obvious bottlenecks to great sound. This upgrade incorporates the Level I upgrade, but it goes much deeper, with more components upgraded, and more expensive components used in upgrading, like replacing the main storage electrolytic with a Continental Capacitor Type A oil-filled capacitor (New! Was Black Gate WKZ capacitors, but the CC-A capacitors are much better), for a quieter background and silkier highs and modify the rectifier tube socket to take the better-sounding 6BW4 type rectifiers. Additionally, the voltage reference is changed from a string of solid-state diodes to a single, neutral-sounding resistor. The net result of all these improvements is an amazingly luscious, detailed sound with deeper bass.

Price for SA-2000 Power Supply Level II Upgrade: $1380
(Add $110 setup fee to this price if not done with an "LSP" upgrade.)

Other Options

Upgraded Volume and Balance Controls, including the DACT stepped attenuator.

TKD makes excellent feeling and sounding volume and balance controls. Once you've heard (and felt) the difference between a $7.00 volume control and a $70.00 control you'll understand why people go to such lengths to get cheap controls out of their signal path. (Shown in SA-1000)

The best-possible, best-sounding control: Danish Audio ConnecT's stepped control with optional remote control.. Click here for more information and pricing.

For the "he-men" (and she-women) out there, why not have the balance control bypassed altogether? You know you don't use it, why run the signal through it?

Price to Upgrade Volume Control to TKD: $115
Price to Upgrade Balance Control to TKD: $130
Price to Bypass Balance Control Altogether: No Charge
For pricing on the DACT volume control, click here.
(add$110 setup fee if not done with an "LSP" upgrade)

Option: Better RCA Jacks.

Upgraded RCA Jacks

The jacks on the SA-2000 can be upgraded to use jacks with much better metallurgy. This can be done selectively: you might wish to only do your CD and phono inputs, and the main outputs. I can replace some or all of your jacks with direct-gold over copper CM1F-OFC from Sound Connections.

Price to Upgrade RCA Jacks: $70 for first stereo pair, $30 for each pair thereafter.
(add $110 setup fee if not done with either of the audio stage upgrades)

Option: Circuit Board Damping

Circuit boards are light and stiff -- they are resonant as heck, which causes smearing of the sound. Your audio will be substantially improved when we apply thick wool felt damping pads between the circuit boards and the chassis to damp all resonances. This results in MUCH tighter imaging and spatial resolution, MUCH greater retrieval of low-level details, a surprising reduction in edginess, and a greater weight to the tone, which makes everything sound fuller and more "real." Click here for pricing. (add $110 setup fee if not done with either of the audio stage upgrades)

Tube Options.

Click here for information about the audio tube, and here for information about the rectifier tube.

If I can be of any further assistance, do not hesitate to contact me.

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