Sony scd-1 vs Ayre C5xe

I agree with Chuck & have not heard anything that surpasses a well-modded SCD-1/777ES.

Rugyboogie,

Options & costs vary considerably depending on whether you DIY or outsource mods. VSE has mostly cornered the market with its drop-in, productized, fully warrantied replacement analog stage, clock & lite mods to power (for $1500-3K depending on whether balanced or SE.) I took a DIY approach based initially on ideas & parts from Reference Audio Mods, and added various improvements of my own incrementally. In retrospect, for under $1500, the initial steps that make the greatest improvement are Audiocom Superclock 4, replacement of select op amps, surface mount resistors & caps in the analog section, and installation of Schottky rectifiers and several discrete DC regulators. For a further bump up the entire analog section can be replaced with a buffered transformer ouput and AC power can be replaced with batteries. RAM does such mods, or I can provide further info to the DIYer.

How good is it? After $5K in mods RBCD on this SCD-1 equals or surpasses a very good vinyl front end.

Richard Kern was the first modder to dig into & mod the unit and work with the Audiocom Superclock. He posted his early findings to the forums circa Y2K, and was greeted by an ocean of skeptics who doubted that the stock player could be improved. Sound familiar? In casual listening at shows at least, I have found DCS, Burmester, Reimyo, Zanden all lacking relative to a well-modded SCD-1.