I've had a few universal players and currently use an APL modified McIntosh MVP861. The stock player is "essentially" a McIntosh re-engineered Denon with a hot-rodded power supply in a nice case. The video on the player is fantastic! Easily better than the Denon 3910 (which had strange macroblocking issues).
The sound quality of the stock MVP861 is just hideous. Dark, closed in, undynamic, etc. Terrible!
I took my MVP861 to APL HiFi who has a very popular and highly regarded modification service for the Denon 2900, 3910 and other universal players. I begged them for help!
Fortunately APL was able to help.
Most high end modification services focus on re-building the stock (cheap) power supplies but in the case of the McIntosh APL said it was an awesome power supply - and they doubt that they could improve it.
What APL did do to improve the sound was to parallel the DACS and add a DSP Clock. Not an expensive modification.
I must report, the sound of the revised McIntosh is way, way, way, better than I ever expected. Even Alex at APL was blown away saying that the MVP861 sounded somewhere in-between his modified Denon 3910 and Esoteric UX-1.
The sound quality of the stock MVP861 is just hideous. Dark, closed in, undynamic, etc. Terrible!
I took my MVP861 to APL HiFi who has a very popular and highly regarded modification service for the Denon 2900, 3910 and other universal players. I begged them for help!
Fortunately APL was able to help.
Most high end modification services focus on re-building the stock (cheap) power supplies but in the case of the McIntosh APL said it was an awesome power supply - and they doubt that they could improve it.
What APL did do to improve the sound was to parallel the DACS and add a DSP Clock. Not an expensive modification.
I must report, the sound of the revised McIntosh is way, way, way, better than I ever expected. Even Alex at APL was blown away saying that the MVP861 sounded somewhere in-between his modified Denon 3910 and Esoteric UX-1.