Sony 9000 ES SACD output stage cold

Darrell, I believe that Stan Warren does an extensive mod for this player. Simontju was having it done to his player, but I haven't seen any posts from him on the results, or if it's back yet. I think that Great Northern Sound is or at some point will be doing them as well. Jerry Ozment bypassed the output of my 777ES and attached the Audio Logic's tubed analog stage to the unit, with a separate power supply, with outstanding results, but I don't think he's doing that anymore (wouldn't hurt to call him, though). Let's face it, the output stage of the Sonys, except perhaps the SCD-1, is built to a price point, certainly not to perfectionist audiophile standards, and a well-designed outboard DAC with its own power supply should be able to outperform it handily on Redbook CDs. But for its price and compared to similar one-box players, from the posts I've been seeing, it's not bad, and you get a DVD player and SACD as well.

Excellent observation, Drubin. I might add that the sound of SACD is also more open (not a feeling as if listening in a box), with less high frequency hash and accordingly less apparent energy in that frequency range. Some people may miss that energy on rock and jazz recordings, although, at least for classical music, I find SACD's presentation to be more natural. And while the dynamic range improvement of SACD over CD is substantial, very few recordings out there available on SACD take full advantage of that increased range, certainly no pop recordings I have heard.

Simon: I agree with you, but note that some of the Sony reissues are restricted in dynamic range because of the limits of the analog tape used in the recording. Still sound better and more dynamic than their CD counterparts, though.