Avguru and Jayctoy: If you go back and look at everything I've said, I have never claimed that anything I have or have heard is the best there is or can be. Usually what draws a comment from me is someone else's suggestion that something is "the best" or really gets what's on the source. And this skepticism extends to reviewers as well: a friend of mine who distributes a couple of well known and pricey products assures me that if you saw the listening rooms in which many reviewers listen to new products you wouldn't believe a word they say. As to specific questions:
1. I have heard very few modded products, but I have no reason to believe that a talented modifier can't work wonders with a stock product, most of which are built to a price point. If a manufacturer wants to sell something for $2000, but would need to charge $2200 to sell it with a better internal component and therefore chooses not to use it, why shouldn't a modifier be able to put one in, charge you $500 for the mod, and achieve better sound? [Of course, the problem is, is it better or just different? There are tradeoffs, remember.]
2. In fact my Classe Omega SACD player was in actuality a $12000 reworking of the $5000 SONY SCD-1, and was noticeably superior in every respect. Was that a modification, even though done by a major manufacturer? Depends how you define modification. I heard some mods of the SCD-1 and they were pretty good, but did they come close to the Classe? Not hardly. But the starting point of all of them was an absolutely superb transport mechanism.
3. Would I buy a real modded unit? Maybe, but it would have to be a modification of a stock unit I would have considered buying anyway, and for me that means the build quality would have to be very good. I have heard people rave about the sound of components which were lightweight and flimsy and supposedly sounded good despite their construction, but I've just never heard one I liked--something was always compromised about the sound as far as I was concerned.
4. Hello, where on earth did you ever get the idea that I own anything I wouldn't consider replacing? Certainly not from me. When this thread started back in the 19th century I had just replaced my Classe with an X-01, mainly because I had just received DSD-capable versions of the dCS units, and had listened to the Meitner gear on someone else's system, and wanted something that could do in SACD what dCS and EMM had accomplished without having to put up with what I didn't like about their respective transports. So three of my four digital components are new this year, and the fourth is eighteen months old. Of course, there are limits. Some time next year the three-box Esoteric digital system is going to role in, for about $40,000, and of course I'll want it. But no, I'll have to do without; for now I'm through. Life is full of hardships, I'm afraid.
5. What do I like best about what I've got? That it sounds more like what I hear in the hall, at least in kind, than anything I've heard (which I can afford, if I suck it in hard enough) so far.
6. Me a guru? No one is a guru who doesn't understand how things work, and for all I know there is concrete and spaghetti in them thar boxes. I know what I like, and I don't confuse that with anything else.
All from me, I think. This thread has been fun, but it's getting old.
1. I have heard very few modded products, but I have no reason to believe that a talented modifier can't work wonders with a stock product, most of which are built to a price point. If a manufacturer wants to sell something for $2000, but would need to charge $2200 to sell it with a better internal component and therefore chooses not to use it, why shouldn't a modifier be able to put one in, charge you $500 for the mod, and achieve better sound? [Of course, the problem is, is it better or just different? There are tradeoffs, remember.]
2. In fact my Classe Omega SACD player was in actuality a $12000 reworking of the $5000 SONY SCD-1, and was noticeably superior in every respect. Was that a modification, even though done by a major manufacturer? Depends how you define modification. I heard some mods of the SCD-1 and they were pretty good, but did they come close to the Classe? Not hardly. But the starting point of all of them was an absolutely superb transport mechanism.
3. Would I buy a real modded unit? Maybe, but it would have to be a modification of a stock unit I would have considered buying anyway, and for me that means the build quality would have to be very good. I have heard people rave about the sound of components which were lightweight and flimsy and supposedly sounded good despite their construction, but I've just never heard one I liked--something was always compromised about the sound as far as I was concerned.
4. Hello, where on earth did you ever get the idea that I own anything I wouldn't consider replacing? Certainly not from me. When this thread started back in the 19th century I had just replaced my Classe with an X-01, mainly because I had just received DSD-capable versions of the dCS units, and had listened to the Meitner gear on someone else's system, and wanted something that could do in SACD what dCS and EMM had accomplished without having to put up with what I didn't like about their respective transports. So three of my four digital components are new this year, and the fourth is eighteen months old. Of course, there are limits. Some time next year the three-box Esoteric digital system is going to role in, for about $40,000, and of course I'll want it. But no, I'll have to do without; for now I'm through. Life is full of hardships, I'm afraid.
5. What do I like best about what I've got? That it sounds more like what I hear in the hall, at least in kind, than anything I've heard (which I can afford, if I suck it in hard enough) so far.
6. Me a guru? No one is a guru who doesn't understand how things work, and for all I know there is concrete and spaghetti in them thar boxes. I know what I like, and I don't confuse that with anything else.
All from me, I think. This thread has been fun, but it's getting old.