DAC or Upgraded Analogue in SACD units?

I have my 777 modified by R. Kern (audiomod.com) and it cost me $480 plus shipping both ways and by far it is the best $480 audio investment I have made. Highly recommend!

I had Richard Kern of Audiomod (www.audiomod.com, located in Oak Grove, Oregon) upgrade my Sony SCD-777ES's audio board and power supply board with, as appropriate, Vishay resistors, and Rel, MIT, and Black Gate caps. This was simply a parts upgrade involving no circuit modifications and cost $480 plus shipping. After a 200-hour post-upgrade burn-in, I moved my external DAC to a secondary system, since the Red Book performance of the 777 alone is now considerably better. SACD performance is enhanced as well. In both modes, there's better resolution, transparency, soundstaging, timbral accuracy, and bass impact as well as definition.

Bill: There is no truth, just what your ears tell you. Well, so much for philosophy. My recollection is that you are considering the SCD-1, which from my auditioning along with the sonically very similar 777ES I own I would consider as sonically in the same ballpark with the Wadia 850/860, more or less. That ain't bad by itself, my first thought is keep the Sony unit for a while, let it break in (it takes a LOOONNG time, as the other posts on the subject have noted) and see how you like it as is. If after that you still have the upgrade itch, there are a number of upgrades available for the lower priced Sony models that may help and be available for the SCD-1 as well. If you like the sound of the Audio Logic DAC, which I do, Jerry Ozment of Audio Logic has a minimally invasive surgery which I had done to my 777ES where he diverted the power supplies to the digital side, then bypassed the analog stage for a small box attached to the side of the Sony with the tubed analog stage from the Audio Logic DAC, together with another separate box containing the power supply for the analog stage. The result to my ears is a more dynamic, dimensional, "alive" (for lack of a better word) sound which is very close to the sound running from the Sony as a transport through my Audio Logic 2400 DAC. I think he charges $1450 for this mod/upgrade. Stan Warren (formerly of PS Audio) has some excellent modifications and upgrades which he does for the 9000ES, don't know if they're available for the SCD-1 but worth considering; others can comment on this, but I understand his mods are very reasonably priced. Another possibility is Great Northern Sound, you might want to contact them. And there are others mentioned in your recent SACD thread and other threads as well. Like I said in the other threads, there seems to be room for improvement of the sound from these units, but see first if you aren't satisfied with the sound from the stock unit before springing for an upgrade and voiding the warranty, as Sony did a nice job on these players sonically. Hope this is of some help, and good luck!

Rcprince,

When you say you would put the Sony SCD-1 in the same ballpark as the Wadia 850/860, I'm assuming you're comparing redbook CD to CD, right? You're not comparing SACD to the Wadia CD playback are you?

The reason I'm asking is I've considered buying a used Wadia 850, but am now leaning towards a SACD player. It would seem logical that the SACD player would be the better value as long as it's regular CD sonics are euivalent to the Wadia.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ken

Just to offer a contrarian view -- one of the truly nice features of the Sony ES line is the 5 year warranty. In addition to voiding the warranty, any of the above mod may negatively effect the resale value of your unit. I use the 333ES machine with a MSB Platinum DAC, total cost under $3,800. More expensive than the modded 777ES, but better sound quality (at least for Redbook CD) and flexibility.