Why do people think something has to be modded to sound good?
Do you really think all these gear manufacturers can't get it right for their own products?
Just wondering why everyone around here seems to think "stock" is a bad thing.
stock is never a "bad" thing.. Have you ever tried to record a loud PA sourced show with a pair of condensers (sens level 10) straight into a dap1 using phantom? if so.. The dap1, as you would find out, is not made to do this. Very similar to the ua5 scenario whereas a modification to the preamp stage of the dap1 "makes it do something it wasnt designed to do" ... ala the digi mod to a ua5..
while tascam got the dap1 "right" for recording digital signals and low db soundsources via mic in/preamp (which it did pretty well, built like a tank!), they (tascam) certainly did not build the machine exclusively for tapers so they can record PA's.. The dap1 also recorded line level signals pretty well, as I did use mine with a grace v2 which means I never needed my dap1 modded. I did record some stuff straight into the dap1 on occasion, like acoustic stuff, and it sounded friggin great! So I can see how one would be tempted to swap out some parts in the preamp section so that the dap1 could be used as an "all in one box" for most taping situations..
Would modding the dap1 be worthwhile? I dont see why not.. which is why oade modded many of them to do this..
Same goes for my fr2le.. While it sounds good stock, I see no reason why it would be frowned upon to change a few amps here and there to make it sound great in
any PA/acoustic/supa-loud environment..
The complaints I heard about the AD1000 for years were: "the a/d is sweet! I just which the preamps were tighter/better etc".. If someone were doing a preamp mod to the AD1K back 15 years ago, do you think there would have been lots of AD1K owners sending their units in for mods? hmmm.. I think yes....