KI's schtick was mainly swapping in fancy capacitors, wasn't it? He probably did more to perpetuate that myth than anyone.The "SE" in that particular case was a cynical exploitation of early audiophile nonsense, subsequently perpetuated by Marantz and the sadly departed Ken Ishiwata. Screwing on a steel base plate and gluing on a inner steel/bitumen pad to make the unit heavier and sound more expensive when you rapped your knuckles on the casework. They threw some Elna Silmics at it, and the HDAM- I think it got a deluxe copper plated box didn't it?
Still didn't change the truly horrible loading mechanism and cheap transport Philips were famous for.
I had one, sold it and never regretted it.
From that era when Philips owned Marantz only their flagship stuff was worth the bother. The rest was nasty plastic tat that only looked good in photographs.
