Sony scd-1 vs Ayre C5xe

Hi Guys
Thanks for the responses. I have been watching the prices on the modded units and yes I agree you don't get the money back that was invested in the payer.
This weekend I compared the EMM and the Ayre players. Nice sounding players. The EMM is quite a bit better than both the Sony and the Ayre. At twice the price it should. You get what you pay for.
Question to Dgarretson. How much to really make the Sony sing and which mods?
Thanks again.

Rugyboogie,

Options & costs vary considerably depending on whether you DIY or outsource mods. VSE has mostly cornered the market with its drop-in, productized, fully warrantied replacement analog stage, clock & lite mods to power (for $1500-3K depending on whether balanced or SE.) I took a DIY approach based initially on ideas & parts from Reference Audio Mods, and added various improvements of my own incrementally. In retrospect, for under $1500, the initial steps that make the greatest improvement are Audiocom Superclock 4, replacement of select op amps, surface mount resistors & caps in the analog section, and installation of Schottky rectifiers and several discrete DC regulators. For a further bump up the entire analog section can be replaced with a buffered transformer ouput and AC power can be replaced with batteries. RAM does such mods, or I can provide further info to the DIYer.

How good is it? After $5K in mods RBCD on this SCD-1 equals or surpasses a very good vinyl front end.

I own a modwright/Kern Sony SCD-777ES and the unit sounds amazing. I wonder how much better is the EMM gears than the modded Sony. What Sony was only very good is in redbook playback. However, my unit sound significant better in redbook and SACD playback.

Richard Kern was the first modder to dig into & mod the unit and work with the Audiocom Superclock. He posted his early findings to the forums circa Y2K, and was greeted by an ocean of skeptics who doubted that the stock player could be improved. Sound familiar? In casual listening at shows at least, I have found DCS, Burmester, Reimyo, Zanden all lacking relative to a well-modded SCD-1.

I have about 2K in mods on my scd-1 and the player is simply stunning. The soundstage is deep and wide and the texture and timbre of the instruments in the soundstage are much improved over stock.

The Ayre C5xe while a very good player can not compete with my sony (not even close).

Chuck