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

Showing 2 responses by audioengr

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 - 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....