Mine was well broken before I decided to changes things a bit... I felt the stock redbook was really good but the addition of a stock ART DI/O added in a little more detail. Just before all the hubub about modding the DI/O started I decided to have my 333ES "Kerned" - Level 1 mods and a Superclock. While SACD is appreciably better and I hope that it will increase (as I haven't played many SACD discs since its return)the redbook presentation is substantially better than stock or my non-modded DI/O which went down the road in a hurry.
There were redbook differences right out of the box after the mod - more info coming through such as extra guitar plucks I had never heard before, etc. and it has just got better and better after each hour.
If you are hesitant about negating the warranty with mods you could keep the unit stock for SACD and add in a DAC such as a modded DI/O (reported to be a killer at a total cost of less than $600 (unit + DI/O mods) or a DAC of your choice.
In my opinion, the cost of the mods were well worth the price of admission...
There were redbook differences right out of the box after the mod - more info coming through such as extra guitar plucks I had never heard before, etc. and it has just got better and better after each hour.
If you are hesitant about negating the warranty with mods you could keep the unit stock for SACD and add in a DAC such as a modded DI/O (reported to be a killer at a total cost of less than $600 (unit + DI/O mods) or a DAC of your choice.
In my opinion, the cost of the mods were well worth the price of admission...