I spoke with Ric at EVS a while back after buying his DAC 1, which I still use, and at that point he was discontinuing his own DAC in favor of modding players because he thought he got better results (in line with what Flye said above). So there's that for what it's worth.
I'm also considering modding my Oppo 970 that I'm currently using as a transport only, but I can't get any of my interconnects to fit in the narrow space provided by the RCA input jacks -- a major limitation. Also, about a month after I had the unit the drawer stopped working and I had to send the unit to get fixed (the unit has worked fine since by the way). Great customer service and turnaround time, but I'd hesitate to send a new unit to Ric since modding probably voids the warranty. Just a thought and best of luck...
I'm also considering modding my Oppo 970 that I'm currently using as a transport only, but I can't get any of my interconnects to fit in the narrow space provided by the RCA input jacks -- a major limitation. Also, about a month after I had the unit the drawer stopped working and I had to send the unit to get fixed (the unit has worked fine since by the way). Great customer service and turnaround time, but I'd hesitate to send a new unit to Ric since modding probably voids the warranty. Just a thought and best of luck...