How good is the Philips 963SA as CD transport?

They are not very reliable for sure. With digital and power mods however, the output is virtually jitter-free. I've seen it on a scope. However, the DVD laser makes the thing sound a bit clinical compared to a Sony or a Pioneer, even though they have more jitter.

tick tick tick tick boom! It will definitely happen someday beware.

IMO, its not all that good as a transport.
A friend and I, who both owned 963sa's, put one of them up against an old transport that he has (a parasound he paid less used for it than a new 963 costs). It wont play most CD-Rs we put in it...so its got to be more than a few years old.

We were running into a Benchmark DAC-1...which touts such jitter correction claims that they say the transport doesnt' matter as much.
well, we could easily hear a difference in the presentation. the Philips was grainy, a tad bright and nowhere near as smooth and musical as the old redbook tranpsort we had to test with.

I've got a Vinnie MOD Toshiba 3960 DVD transport now. dampening and power supply mods. its pretty smooth, but I have not put it up against the one remaining 963sa that he still has. I would venture to guess that it will sound better than the philips.

i'm sorry to be the only guy here who says "it ain't all that...."
I"m looking for a new DVD tranpsort too. Imleaning towards an older Sony DVP model as i'm convinced these little lightweight players are crap transports due to their flimsy construction.

I thoroghly enjoy my 963SA. I purchased it at Goodguys for $99.00!!!! It was a demo without cables and instructions. I have my own cables at home and pulled the instructions off of the Philips website.

Sean - you were right. After doing a lot of power and digital mods I installed a Jensen cap and ran it for 2 days solid. The 963 really opened-up. Great as a transport now. Not compressed at all. To get that last bit of focus, it needs a more stable clock though. Trying that tomorrow.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

I'm not sure if the latter few responses are inregards to this as a CDP or as a transport, which I think the original question was regarding its capabilities as a transport.

Ditto on the above. I have one of these and I have a Naim CDP. No comparison. PHillips is lacking in all areas, dull, boring, no detail, no dimension, no soundstage......Naim will spoil some of the best cdp's.

Kenny: I could see how you could arrive at that conclusion. These units lack certain qualities i.e. they aren't very "open" or "airy". As such, the sound & presentation is not as "expansive" for these reasons, hence a logical descriptive term would appear to be "compressed". Sean
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I personally have one but find it somewhat compressed sounding for my liking..... that said, I'll be using it this weekend as I could care less if it gets trashed in the approaching hurricane! My DV-50....Id be upset about!

While some may have a hard time believing this, but the sonic characteristics of these units that one hears when running the unit as a full-blown player are pretty much carried over to what one hears when used as a transport. That is, a very "round" yet "musical" presentation. I thought there was a very good sense of prat but it was lacking in speed, detail, separation of instruments and top end extension. My Brother and i came to the same conclusions about this in two different systems. If one has a very "clinical" and / or bright & lean sounding system and wants to add a noticeable amount of warmth and "musicality" to it, this might be a viable candidate as a transport or player. Sean
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