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Transport ? - Mod a Sony 7700 or go another route

I've been wrestling with wether or not to have Empirical Audio do the turbo mod to my 7700 for probably 9 months now. I'm about to give birth.

What's holding me back is spending $800 to modify a $250 dvd player. Are there other options out there in the $500 - $750 range that would equal or surpass the turbomod? I know everyone who has done the turbomod has loved it, so I'm really looking for other possible suggestions. If there are none and the turbo mod is the way to go, so be it, then let it be done!

For alternatives I've been looking at Theta Data, EAD, PS Audio, Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 or the parasound belt drive. Some are harder to find than others. If the Turbomod would kick all of their butts then it might just make sense to do that.

I'm currently running the transport to a Nixon tubedac, through a Philly audio blues preamp to an Odyssey Stratos stereo extreme and finally through Odyssey Lorelei's.

Thanks.
byteme
7 responses Add your response
c123666
871 posts
 
Cal Audio Delta transport is very good for less than 300 used, typically. A PS Audio Lambda II is supposed to be a wonderful unit. The Parasound belt drive model would be my starting point to find used and then the PS Audio.
alex_yakovlev
102 posts
 
I did pretty much everything possible to my former 7700. If I was paying someone else to do this it would probably cost me well over thousand (I invested about $450 in parts alone). By the end I had a decent transport, but nothing outstanding.
Ended up selling it and buying another DVD player to rebuild, but that's just me... :)
If I were you, I would probably sell 7700 and buy a good used dedicated transport.
gustavog
36 posts
 
You can find a used Proceed CDD for $800-900. That's what I'm using right now and gives excellent sound. I compared it against a Cal lab transport, a modded Music Hall CD25 and it beats them flat out.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Alex - Did you redesign the digital output stage, install a Superclock2, reroute the digital signal paths, speed the edges up to 10 nsec risetimes and retune the output impedance to precisely 75 ohms?

This is what it takes to make the 7700 a superb transport.
alex_yakovlev
102 posts
 
Audioengr,
I am feeding external clock into all my digital components, so I disconnect internal clock completely. I also use only BNC for data connection, thus impedance is first thing I adjust. I did make few changes to path, though I'm sure something else could be done.
It would be much easier to modify dedicated transport my next project would probably be building one from scratch using transport mechanism by most likely universal TEAC.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Alex - installing a BNC was not what I had in mind when I said "tune" the impedance.

I have been doing digital mods to a Philips 963SA today. It has a very clean, fast and matched S/PDIF signal now, but it still does not compete with the liveness of the Sony DVP-S7700 with modded Superclock2. The Philips risetime is the fastest that I have ever seen, sub-5nsec with no overshoot. Perhaps with a modded Superclock2 it will be on-par with the Sony....
drdub
1 posts
 
Hi Audioengr,

Would it be possible to post the transport mods for a s7700 with more detail please, so I can get this to the guy who would do it for me?

Many thanks in advance,

best regards - Patrick
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