Are the Denons the Best Universals to Mod?

"Tvad, it's funny, these threads are really being followed by a lot of people and audio stores, around the country, and world." Come on , thanks for the effort but come down a bit please.It becomes an ego thing now.It reminds me of this guy who had tried many ICs and speaker cables and was barking all day long how the HMS cables killed the Nordost Valhalla.Well , some liked the HMS stuff and some still prefered the Nordost.
"My APL Denon kills the Meitner combo " comments don't bring a lot of objectivity to the table and are totally subjective.There is no best.All gear is system dependant , question of synergy and personal taste.One day the Exemplar is the best , then a few days later the APL and now what ? The " more musical" ModWright ? My head is spinning....

Tvad,

I agree with you that there is no clear "best." What we need to understand better is what trade-offs the designers made or, more appropriately, how they chose to voice their mods.

I am now getting the impression that the APL and Exemplar are voiced to be "accurate" while the Modwright tends on the side of being "warm" and "lush". Assuming both convey similar levels of musical detail and don't commit obvious sins (like boomy/flabby bass, to pick a random example) then it becomes a matter of choosing the modded player that suits your tastes and systems. This is why these head to head comparisons are so useful.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Exemplar vs APL vs Modwright listening session! I only wish someone out there had a current version of the Reference Audio Mod of the Denon 2900!

Thanks,

- Jay

The Denons seem extremely popular to mod! More than most other players it seems!
Would this be because they use very high grade Burr-Brown DAC's, or do they have extra space on the inside for mods, or both, or is it because of other reasons?
Some insight would be great.
Thanks again.

If you don't want DVD audio capability, the ModWright Signature Truth-modded Sony 999ES is both visually and musically fabulous. I am very happy with mine. It's scary close to my big rig front end which includes an Audio Note DAC4.1x Signature at way more dollars...

Tvad, EVS is also interested in modding the Onkyo, but the thing is, Onkyo sp 1000 owners are in no hurry to have the universal modded as it sounds musical and balanced in stock form.
Suprisingly so imo.

Greg