being serious - there are things that are easy to measure, even using simple spdif sound cards and good dacs and a/d's.
what costed a thousand dollars in the eighties may not even compete with stuff 1/10 the price, today. the modern decent op-amp quality, alone, is shockingly good; you don't even have to go discrete to have studio-grade audio paths these days.
I'm not talking about magic capacitors; but just replacing all the (likely) carbon resistors and ceramic/electrolytic caps with film types. not $100 caps but $5 caps at the most. competant upgrades, not boutique stuff.