the V3 is all that...and a bag of dorritos isnt it.
To my ears, yes. But what I was getting at with the Oade-modded gear not
quite stacking up to the V3 is something along these lines...
I'm a BIG believer in the mods the Oade Bros perform. I've owned a digi-mod UA5, a warm-mod UA5, and now a transparent-plus UA5 - all of which provided significant improvement over the stock unit. I'm simply stunned at the T+, especially in unamplified situations - to my ears (no measurements taken), it's as quiet as the V3 at very high gain, and quieter than the 722. I'm thrilled with how the Oade mods not only changed the sonic characteristics, but also so dramatically reduce the noise floor. I far prefer the T+ UA5 with my 414s than the V3, due mostly to the sonic characteristics of the T+ mod (given the noise floor to my ears is equal v. the V3).
However, even the T+ doesn't quite compare to the V3 in subtle ways - soundstaging, for example. Through no fault of the Oade Bros mods, mind you!
The V3 (like similar devices in its class) was designed and engineered from the ground up as an uber-HQ portable preamp and ADC with very few (serious) shortcuts implemented in the final product. The gear the Oade Bros modify, in it's original state pre-mod, typically is not designed and engineered by the manufacturers from the ground up as uber-HQ gear. The manufacturers make fairly substantial, readily audible compromises and shortcuts. If they didn't, the gear wouldn't need modifying.
Anyway, all this blathering to put it another way: you can take a Saturn sedan and swap out a bunch of mediocre parts with high performance/quality parts, but it still won't quite compare to the (IMO) super nice and HQ Volvo S60 - the low level, detailed engineering simply isn't there in the Saturn, regardless of the parts swapping.
All that said, I'm open to the potential for the mod-671 to top out the V3, but based on the above comments and previous listening I'm skeptical it will. If it does - great! More HQ options for recording gear is a Good Thing.
