What Is The


I am in a situation right now that it is quite confusing and I think some of us have been there before. I currently own a Musical Fidelity Trivista SACD Player. Excellent Sounding Player and it has been my Reference Player for quite some time. Now I want to try a Different SACD Player and my choices are , Cary Audio 306,Esoteric X-03SE,SA-60 and a stock DV-50s and here is where my dilemma is. I am considering purchasing an Esoteric DV50S and have it Modified since many people have claimed that these modifed units are by far much better sounding than their 4 times more costly stock players.

Many Audiophiles claim that many "MODIFIED/UPGRADED" CD players sound much better than many $10+ stock units. I onced purchased a TRL Modifdied Marantz SA-14 VER2 and even though this unit sounded very good it was no competition to my Stock Musical Fidelity Trivista.

Now with so many Companies "Claiming" that their Modifications/Upgrades are the best! How is it possible for anyone to know which is the "BEST" or "RIGHT" Modification for your unit?

In one end you have a company charging you $600 for their "BEST" modification, another charging $1299 for their "Signature Modification," another one charging $2900 for their "Reference Modification" and so on. The question is: Does the most Expensive Modification makes the best Modification? Or can you get the same exact results from a $600 Modification compare to a $2900 mod?
Let's also remember that ---> THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME CLAIM, "OUR MODIFICATION WILL MAKE YOUR UNIT SOUND MUCH BETTER THAN THOSE COSTING 3 or 4 TIMES MORE"

Now I know that this is a Topic that will elaborate a lot of discussions since many Audiophiles have had their units modified or Upgraded by different companies but I will appreciate if anyone can share their experiences not just with me but with many other Audiogon members that may be in the same situation as I am right now. I know that your comments or opinions will be helpfull to all.

My Best Regards,

Carlos
nypr2003
I absolutely agree with Tvad's reply. Be patient, and keep your shirt. If interested in modified units, buy used. If you want new, look for a stock unit.

John
My situation is I own a Sony DVP 9000ES, that is claimed by at least 2 "modders" to be a very good unit to modify, with the similar claims as to how good the end result is, vs. more expensive units. I am very skeptical of the process. If true, wow what a savings as the Sony is basically "paid for", so even the higher end mods are a deal on a unit. So I have always been wondering if that is even an option worth considering ?
I recently purchased a RAM-modified Oppo 981. It is far, far beyond my expectations. Amazingly so. Before that I modded a few components of my own. This gave me a good basis for evaluating different modders claims. It is daunting ordering something like this without audition, but if you take the time to really understand what they are doing then there really is not that much risk.

Number one is you need to upgrade internal power supplies. These make a huge difference, as you can easily prove to yourself. Just get some high speed soft recovery HEXFRED type diodes and solder them in for the cheap diodes in your amp/preamp/cd player/whatever. Trust me, they will be cheap diodes in there. Then, when you hear how much better just that one tiny change sounds maybe you will begin to understand how something like a little RAM modded Oppo 981 can give an Esoteric DV50 a run for its money. Or even beat it, depending on the listener, it is that close. Because RAM goes way beyond this simple mod, using hard wired surface mount diodes and Jensen 4-pole caps. (I'm talking only about the power supply right now.)

Then you look at things like the clock. Google around, no problem finding lots of reviews of top-end players improved by adding the Superclock 2, 3 or 4. In doing my research I found several reviews saying if you have Superclock 2 (or 3) it is worth upgrading to Superclock 3 (or 4) they are that much better. And the clock in turn was much better than stock. That one also is a no-brainer. And yes for the Esoteric as well as the Oppo. Superclock improves them all.

Something like replacing output stages with different op-amps, you have to trust the modder a little. But even here it should be easy to see where there is room for improvement, as far too many of these spendy players use way too complicated circuit design. Simpler is better is the rule of the day. I've talked to Kyle and Doug at RAM, a lot of what they do is throw out overly complicated and unnecessary circuitry and replace with simpler, direct-wired parts.

Another thing you might try, replace some caps with higher quality same value caps. Amazing. Most of these modders replace a handful of caps, this is a fool-proof guaranteed path to improved sound.

I should also note there is no conflict whatsoever in all modders claiming their mod makes the player competitive with players costing 3-4X. They could easily all be right. Now if they claimed their player sounds better than any other mod, thems would be fightin' words. But they don't. Of course when done with the $250 Oppo you really have a $1465 player, but even then I think it is quite fair to say it is better than players costing 3 or 4 times more, ie $4500 to $6k. In fact based on my experience I would say that claim is quite conservative.

As for how much it costs vs what you get, depends on what you started out with. Different players with different hardware and design topologies naturally lend themselves to modification to different degrees. Its easy to see how a player with a good transport mechanism and DAC, for example, will be easier to mod to a certain level than one with worse trans and DAC, because its easier to improve caps and power supplies than more expensive and hard to install parts like a transport mechanism. And on down the line.

Still, I think you will find (and I know it is somewhere here on Audiogon) people with these incredibly expensive decks who have spent thousands having them modded and will tell you it is some of the best money they have ever spent. I didn't spend that much but I'm extremely pleased with mine.

This all makes sense in consideration of the economics of designing, producing, distributing and marketing a new component. For every $1k you spend maybe $.1k goes to parts. Mod your component and about $.7k goes to better parts. Again, if you try the simple parts swaps experiments I've suggested you will really begin to understand how powerful are the forces working in your favor when you decide to mod what you have instead of buying againg. And again. And again . . .

Frankly, if it was me, and if I was looking at the kind of budget you seem to have, I would be talking to RAM about what deck would be the best starting point for all-out performance. Have them stick in a couple Silver Rocks, mod it to the max. You will have music like you never heard before.
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Send your Trivista to RAM for a full mod, you won't be disappointed.

They've modded lots my stuff and it's worth every penny.