Re. CD/SACD player modifications.

Babur72

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2007
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Hi guys,

I'd be grateful to know the personal experiences or thoughts of anyone who's had their own standard CD/SACD players or amps.(or any other component for that matter) upgraded or modified by specialists - such as GNSC or The Upgrade Co. etc.

Whilst i've been most impressed with the DCS Paganini CD/SACD transport/Scarlatti DAC/Scarlatti master-clock combo's. performance,they can't be used as the front-end of a multi-channel audio set-up.Thereby,at least to my way of thinking,rendering useless one of the major assets of the SACD or even DVD-A formats.So i've gone back to looking at the single-box players i began with.

Besides,one-box players are a somewhat more compact & neater solution - Helps keep the amount of cabling down to an acceptable minimum for a start.And especially when i know i'll be connecting the player to a pre. & power-amp.,mains re-generator & later a digital multi-channel processor aswell.The last thing i want is for the system to dominate the listening room so much that i'm unable to relax & enjoy listening to the music.

Among the single-box players i have listened to,some impressed me with certain aspects of their performance but,underwhelmed with others.The Esoteric X-01D2 for instance,has exceptional detail & dynamics.Excellent imaging & soundstaging(if a bit on the shallow side).But has quite a cool,steely tonal quality.Presented in such a crisp & almost aggressively forward fashion that it came across as bordering on the analytical,clinical,lean & fatiguing side.It was a similar story with the Wadia 781i.

But a dealer recently suggested that if i was sufficiently impressed with the strengths of the Esoteric or Wadia players,i could always consider sending the stock units to a suitably proficient specialist to upgrade the quality of capacitors,damping,filtering,power-supplies & resistors etc. to achieve an airier,harmonically richer,fuller & more rounded sound.Whilst preserving the positive qualities of the original factory issue models.

I have no experience of dealing with & little knowledge of the work of these specialists - or the potential pitfalls i should be aware of.I'd appreciate the views of those who have.

Thanks.

BABUR.
 
T

the record spot

Guest
Thaiman, Andrew....!

Joking aside, there's not many folk here who've had the joy of that level of kit, but the Esoteric gear looks the business IMO. What you'd have to do and spend is beyond me though. I'll swap you my Marantz SA7001-KI if you fancy though. Plenty of upgrade potential on that!
 

Babur72

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2007
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the record spot:Thaiman, Andrew....! Joking aside, there's not many folk here who've had the joy of that level of kit, but the Esoteric gear looks the business IMO. What you'd have to do and spend is beyond me though. I'll swap you my Marantz SA7001-KI if you fancy though. Plenty of upgrade potential on that!

Hi TRS.,

He-he...Good one!

Don't get rid of your Marantz SA7001-KI too soon though.I'm getting so frustrated that i may just call it quits & take you up on your offer!

Yeah.i hear(?) what you're sayin' mate.

It's just that with my budget there are that many more choices,which can be so bewildering that you have to be absolutely sure of what you want to achieve,before throwin' your money around.

Perhaps i'm just nit-picking unnecessarily regarding the Esoteric sound.Their battle-ship build-quality - especially their VRDS-Neo disc transport mechanism - is certainly confidence inspiring.It's so good both DCS & Wadia use it in their own transports.

Thanks for making me chuckle though mate.

BABUR.
 
T

the record spot

Guest
It'd be worth the swap if only to see the look on my wife's face: "How much was that then?" - "£5k dear" - "Get out"!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Your dealer is giving good advice. Upgrading with quality components makes a big improvement to the musicality which is astounding.

In the 70's got involved with building custom crossovers to Rogers speakers I had and re building the boards on my Quad amp/pre with impressive results.
Bought components and was advised by Russ Andrews and others at the time and years later sent him my 2yr old Meridian 207 to play with. Cost me about half as much again as I paid for it but worth every penny.
It is shocking the quality of many of the components fitted into expensive gear where you would expect much better, and the upgrade potential is huge.

Nowadays when I buy I always look at the upgrade potential and well thought out design, I can always buy high speck components to replace low/mid priced ones.
 

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