Review: Sony SCD-1 Audiocom-UK upgrade

Category: Digital

This is the first part of a weekly update/review of the Audiocom-uk modifications made to my Sony SCD-1 by Audiomod (Richard Kern). This was the full six part upgrade as outlined at www.audiocom-uk.com/diy_features.shtml. The six parts include Audio board electrolytic capacitors, Audio board resistors, Audio board regulators' Audio board op-amp modules, Power board electrolytic capacitors and Power board regulators.
I sent out my player two day Fed-Ex on Monday, 13 Aug. ‘01. The unit was received by Richard on Wednesday and he began the 16 hour modification right away. We decided to have him do the initial burn-in through the weekend to see if any problems arose. On Sunday he ran a series of tests and found that the power regulators on the power board had a problem and were running hot. On Monday Richard ordered a replacement set that he installed Tuesday, The problem seems to potentially be more of a voltage matching with the Audiomod replacement parts, so the three original regulators were reinstalled. Richard kept the player playing until Thursday, 23 Aug. to be safe that no other issues arose. ( I have asked Richard to give a brief description of his findings and some thoughts on the modification, I hope he will post those ideas here) The player was overnighted to me and I received it yesterday, Friday, 24 Aug. ‘01.
The package arrived safely, double boxed like I had sent it. Opening the box, I found a listing of the work done, a brief personal note and a bag full of parts. The player had been cleaned off on the outside, looking better than any other time the past year and a half. After placing the SCD-1 back on its throne, I opened the cd tray and found it too was sparkling clean, all the fine dust I'd been collecting was gone, I guess I'll have to start a new collection. It was clear to me that Richard takes his business very seriously. The checking and double checking on his bench and the cleaning all made an impression on me.
I ran the unit for about three hours before giving it a short initial listen. It was clear on the "red book" playback ( I did not try SACD) that the definition, and sound stage were vastly improved. The reason I had chose this upgrade was because after two weeks with the Audiomeca Enkianthus up-sampling DAC I felt the improvements were not great enough to justify the cost. Here with just one disk the improvement to the entire presentation blew away the Audiomeca, and in every way. The transparency, definition, detail, dynamics, timing and sound stage were all improved. Not a subtle improvement, this is night and day, like a different player. I have NEVER heard any "red book" playback sounding this good on my system. It's easy to see this will be a great investment. In that the electrolytic capacitors require a full 400 hours to fully burn-in, the final sound quality will not be realized for a couple more weeks. So far the timbre is a bit off and the treble is slightly etched. The bass is completely gone at this point, I listened to Emmylou Harris "Spyboy" cut # two, this bass will generally shake my walls, this time I got up and turned off the mid/ high frequency amp to see if the bass amp was working. Sadly it was, I pray this is just a temporary setback.
So for week one, I would say this is looking very promising. I will update this post next Saturday, please stand by.
J.D.