Welcome Ben,
When I joined this family I had a stock C-1 sitting in the basement boxed up. With the encouragement of the great people here I dove into it by starting with the BillD mods and just kept going from there. The C-1 is a fantastic preamp when the mods are applied to it. Some day I may ask Brian or Dennis to do the remote volume mod if I decide not to attempt it myself.
Since that time I've added an M1.5t, C-9 and TX1-11. I'm loving the system.
The people here are awesome and you will find that you made the right choice by joining us in the Carver fun.
Paul