Cost effective mods for a Sony SCD-777ES

I have an SCD-1 with the Sperclock and transport upgrades. The addition of a Sonic Frontiers Processor 3 provided a substantial improvement in Bluebook performance. I might add that any mods performed will probably not prove to be a good investment at resale time.

Chuck,

The transport cap mod does improve things. There are several more mods that make an even larger improvement to the transport:

(1) Replace 4 SMD coupling caps on Main Board & RF board with radial-lead teflon.

(2) Replace signal path SMD resistors on Main & RF Board with radial-lead Caddock or Vishay.

(3) Eliminate ground loops. Remove Main Board center standup post and run ground wire from center tab to IEC earth. Replace all metal washers on the perimeter standups with nylon to sever multiple grounds.

(4) Upgrade power board 5V & 3.3V regulators to discrete assemblies such as Audiocom Invisus PPR2. Then bypass the two crappy 5V-to-3.3V SMD down-regulators on the main board, by running jumpers directly to the 3.3V source regulator. A major improvement.

More available, but much of this is only cost-effective for the DIYer.

Dave

Wow. Lots of great advice. Thanks everyone. I am Mr. Conservative. I am very nervous to spend - $1,000 and not be able to get it back when I sell it. I think I will buy an external DAC rather than continue to modify it. Mine has Black gate capacitors and Vishay resistors. I will leave it at this level. Any suggestions for external DACs. My local tweak guy says - use a modded Bel Canto DAC 1?

Dcaudio

If your goal is to retain value then IMO you never want to modify anything as you will never get your money back out of the mods and you may actually lose value. Unless your modder is well know for his/her work and has a great reputation such as Richard Kern. If you are going to buy a DAC and what to retain some value then do not have it modded. You may want to buy and sell, used of course, until you get the sound you want and as I believe Tvad is suggesting.

Thinking a bit more about your situation. Since you have already had some caps and resisters upgraded. I would spend the 300-400 and have the superclock 4 installed. You will improve the player substantially and (IMO) the clock will retain some value.

Chuck