Advice on Budget System for newbie

Thanks for everybody's help. I am definitely going to seek out a music hall CDP, although the upgraded ones seem to be more plentiful (worth it?) than a standard used one. Then, I'll try to audition an audio refinement complete, NAD 320 bee, 352, and consider a cambridge azur. I'll let you know in a few weeks when I get it all set up.

I can't comment on whether any of the various upgrades are cost effective from the several places who do them. It looked to me as if the biggest bang for the buck might be in replacing the opamps since they're such a critical piece in the signal path and there's such a huge spread in the price ratio between the relatively inexpensive ones in the stock player and the high end ones. Many of the other upgrades require soldering, as well, but replacing the opamps doesn't.

I bought a pair of AD8066 opamps from soundodyssey.com for $54 and the swap was no more difficult than replacing a fuse, as long as you pay attention to the pin orientation. The difference in sound is amazing, particular in bass articulation. Blindfolded, I would have thought I was listening to a more expensive pair of speakers rather than to an upgrade of a couple of fingernail-sized chips.

Thanks for sharing about the op amp upgrade, Sfar. My brother has my old S100 and the mod will make a nice gift for him.

I agree with you that this particular upgrade is probably the most cost-effective. Another good one for the player is a better power cord, which helps the bass and overall detail quite noticeably. I like the Subaruguru for cords--his kits are a great deal.

Tobias, yes, I forgot to mention that I'd also upgraded the power cord. I made up my own, using Marinco plugs and Belden 19364 wire. I had the cord when I bought the player and never used the stock cord at all so I can't compare the two.

On the opamps, Underwood HiFi uses the Burr Brown OPA-627 in their upgrade and Sound Odyssey uses the AD8066. There was no way to compare the two directly and the reason I bought the 8066 is that the price seemed reasonable considering the cost of the player. Sound Odyssey was set up to sell parts directly from their web site and that's the chip they use. I'm thrilled with the sound but the OPA-627 might be a good option, as well, though considerably more expensive. They sell it as well

Here's the page on their site with descriptions of the various opamps they sell. I'm sure their may be other sources, as well.
http://store.yahoo.com/yhst-9053161298275/opamps.html

I would highly recommend the Panasonic SA-XR45 or the new SA-XR70 (avail. in Oct). These are in the $400 range HT receivers with 100 W/chnl digital amps for all channels. They can be run digital in to out and sound good stock, but are superb when modded. You can enjoy it for a while and then when you have the bux, get it modded. You will have a true audiophile system after this. For the player, I would recommend a Toshiba SD-6915. Plays everything and sounds decent stock. Can also improve with digital outs and power supply modded.

I am building-up a frieds system and this is what I have recommended to him.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer