You are correct about Penny and Giles. Nothing better. As a matter of reference, I recently bought this preamp and am in the process of doing the same mod as I see here. Would you have a copy of the schematic on hand? Greatly appreciated.
The original volume pot in not ALPS, it is actually a Noble pot. I worked for Noble USA for two years and I was the account manager for this line. They were the Noble AP25 and at the time considered some of the best in the audio world.