Mr. Lin's Foreplay III and ongoing modifications...

[Mr. Lin]

You seriously took the words right out of my mouth!  It's illogical, I know, but that OD3 looks so cool...

I won't be able to afford the Extended Foreplay kit any time soon, but I might one day do it.  For now I'm pretty much thrilled with how the FPIII sounds, and I'm sure at least some of the minor modifications I've made to it have yielded some improvements.  It's hard to tell what does what though. 

 

[Laudanum]

Ive read the section comparing the different FPIII versions.  Seems like the conclusion was that the stock FPIII was better than any upgraded versions of the pervious FP's.  For me, very good is often much more than good enough.  I cant really afford the extended upgrade right now either and I'm very happy with the stock FPIII as is.  I've pretty much settled on the tubes (6SN7 in mine) for FPIII and rest of the system. FPIII is modded lightly with a few cap upgrades, everything nice and quiet now, even with the turntable,  and just think that OD3 is way too cool. 
Audio money would probably be best spent on this system by a turntable upgrade anyway.  Either a better table or more likely upgrading the one I have.  It's a very decent table actually but it could be upgraded for a good bit less than the cost of the FP extended upgrade.  The only thing is that Im actually very partial to the Shure M97xe cart and the old Pickering XV-15 / Stanton 681 as well.  So with that in mind, turntable upgrades may yield diminishing returns anyway if fine detail and subtleties are the main benefits.  Anyway, Im happy with the system and while Im sure the extended is a worthy sonic upgrade, it's low on the list right now.  The TT is the main thing in the back of my mind regarding this system and there are too many real bills and other needs coming up here in the next month or so.  Im fortunate to be able to have more than enough as it stands for ample musical enjoyment.

 

[randy@matrixq.com]

My Foreplay III is still stock and its hard for me to imagine that it could get any better.  I have no doubt that the upgrade will improve things since that has been my experience with all of the BH products and upgrades but I just love my Foreplay the way it is.

Someday I may build another with the upgrade just to see.