I remember when the TS-930 was the latest toy on the block and the term "Phase Noise" was added to ham vocabulary.
A USN ham bored to death in a repair depot on Guam decided to experiment and replaced every 1/8W Jap resistor with mil-spec metal film in the synthesizer and reported a 10dB improvement. Then he heard other noise which turned out to be the score of 3 terminal regulators which he replaced with discrete components.
Audiophools think they can hear a bug fart but its just another brain cell dying off.
Since Im not into EME or extreme audio crap I'll stick to plain old common sense until someone proves using real engineering procedures that the old CC's in my BA's are causing me to miss something. At least Im not worrying about whiskers in SMD gear that will kill all the SDR's in a few years