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Objective Review of the ModWright Pioneer LX800

Earlier, I promised to share an objective review of the ModWright modified LX800 BDP Blu-ray player I ordered from ModWright Company owner, Daniel Wright. After a couple of months search, I had a review commissioned with David Mackinnon. He and his team have done over 450 reviews of audio gear.

The MW unit is compared with an original brand new LX800 unit. And with another upgrader, The Upgrade Company. The review is done and I am very pleased to make a copy available here. I hope you find all the information here useful to your future decision-making around upgrading. I specifically asked for the section explaining measurements from David. It’s intended to be educational and I hope you find it helpful.

My sincere thanks go to the David MacKinnon for his patience and persistence.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wjkbzvtl-HR4i42ma4XOfrxZI5IwHBpV 


128x128johnread57
11 responses Add your response
johnread57's avatar
johnread57 OP
227 posts
 
In the system with the LX800SE I am using a Marantz 8805SE as preamp into an ARC D240 MK II SE powering my PMC MB2SE. Sounds excellent too. Plans to update the preamp may or may not come to fruition.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,602 posts
 
johnread57

Excellent!! Thank You for the follow up. What gear is in your current system?

Happy Listening!
johnread57's avatar
johnread57 OP
227 posts
 
@jafant yes mate I continue to enjoy my LX800SE 
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,602 posts
 
Any of you guys still enjoying the Pioneer LX800 player?

Happy Listening!
facten
2,878 posts
 
While I do not own gear modified by Modwright, there seems to have been many satisfied owners of such gear over the years so this reviewer's assessment is somewhat surprising. I do own Modwright's tubed LS100 preamp and Elysee DACs, as well as SS KWA100SE power amp. I have no problems with either the tube units or the power amp , and they sound great to my ears .
thaluza's avatar
thaluza
285 posts
 
Yeah, I saw that. I was just wondering if the reviewer's impressions of the stock unit were similar to yours. Anyways, having experienced (and liked) a dac in my system that has the newest generation ESS Sabre dac chip, I am curious about Pioneer's implementation. The build quality of Pioneer's upper end players is better than Oppo's in my opinion, which makes the potential of the LX800 very promising.
johnread57's avatar
johnread57 OP
227 posts
 
Thaluza the report report includes testing and listening notes for an untreated LX800 as a benchmark. It’s a winner actually...
johnread57's avatar
johnread57 OP
227 posts
 
Thaluza thanks for your feedback. The note on tube type is well taken I’ll update the doc soon.
thaluza's avatar
thaluza
285 posts
 
Also, the guy who did your review did not mention what tubes are in your Modwright unit, unless I missed it. Perhaps the choice of tubes makes a difference? I had an Allnic phono stage with a tubed power supply and thought the sound got even better with a quality rectifier tube.
thaluza's avatar
thaluza
285 posts
 
Did you try the LX800 before sending it to Modwright? If yes, what did you think of it? There’s been some positive user impressions of the stock LX500 and it seems the stock LX800 should be even better.
thaluza's avatar
thaluza
285 posts
 
Thanks. That’s an eye opener and food for thought. Hoping some Modwright owners, or at least some owners of gear with tubed power supplies, will chime in to give their perspective. I owned a MW Oppo 83 and still have a Pioneer BD player that was the immediate predecessor of the LX800. Not really the same as what’s in your review, and the Oppo is long gone, so I’ll abstain from commenting on their relative pros and cons.
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