Philips 963SA normal characteristics?

1) Compared to many higher end CD players, I agree, I understand modifying them really helps, but I have moved mine to another system and bought a better player.

2) Sometimes.....

FWIW I paid less than $400 NEW, for that, it does quite well.

Mine took quite a bit of time to break in. Maybe 100 hours.
Sounded a whole lot better after upgrading one capacitor for about $30 not including labor.

Mine has started to make a fluttering noise on some discs. Particularly discs that may be warped. Happened to a friend's too. Hope it doesn't get any worse.

Give it time to break in and do the $30 blackgate mod.

Good luck,

I have well over 1800 hours on mine, and paid less than $350 for it with a 5 year warranty. My Sony DVP-S7700 stopped playing dvd's so I took it to work to use with my hd600's. I got a new amp and speakers at the same time (bad idea since I lost my reference point) and played away. Sound was detailed, yet I did not really seem to have any bass and I thought it was my new speakers. Just for laughs, I connected the sony again. Night and day, bass returned and music was much fuller. Now the phillips is used only for dvd and sacd. Cabling used was all cardas hexlink and quadlink. Picture on the phillips is outstanding.