Are DACs superior to top-graded regular CD Players

George, I disagree with your view that newer, much better caps such as
Jupiter, Deulund or Mundorf would not improve the sound. Besides that, the
original caps would be 25 years old now & would have degraded, so it is
sensible maintenance to carry out given the vintage of the player & its price
point. As for dismissing isolation feet. Stillpoints Ultra Mini's work very well
& atleast you can still keep them or easily sell them if the player was later
sold.

I would be happy to replace the caps & do the IEC mod on an XL-Z1050
because they're not mucking around with the original circuit design of the
player. I'm not saying the mods you suggested wouldn't improve the sound,
but the moment you start modifying the player's basic design, in a player
this old and cheap, it would be hard to sell. If you want a Lexus, just buy
Lexus.

It's always better to be a Aussie as well , beats everything
but being a Kiwi in Finland .

Like I said if he has no problems and it running fine, no noises from it's output, leave the caps be.

If he really want to make it sing beyond his wildest dreams with a mod, then do the mod I linked to.
And then while the board is out do the caps if he's worried, as it's a pain to get the board out of one of these just to do a cap change and nothing else and maybe for nothing if it's working fine.

Cheers George

George, good advice about the economics of doing the other mid at the same time as refreshing the caps. Though FYI, I have personally heard the profound difference different caps make in virtually identical platforms. For example, going from the Ayon CD-5 to the CD-5s I could easily hear the improved resolution and soundstage depth (known qualities of the better Mundorf Mcap Supreme silver/gold in oil caps used in the CD-5s).

DEvil is in the details. Get a good one either way, use good quality wires if needed (need not cost much) and you should be golden either way.

In normal cases, the DAC used in either case will largely determine how things sound. So you have more flexibility to "tweak" the sound with an external DAC. You have more convenience and still very good results if a CD player if you choose the right one for you.