Cost effective mods for a Sony SCD-777ES

I agree - Tvad. Mine did not have as many Kern mods as the one on sale know. That is OK. There is no doubt in my mind that the transport is excellent. Playing with different DACs can become a new interesting aspect to get the sound right. A friend of mine has a Meridian 566 - 24 bit. Let me start there.

Tvad,

Of 30 odd mod/test cycles I've been through with the SCD-1, all but one or two changes were steps in a positive direction without any downside. The one or two mods I would consider "flavor" preferences-- i.e., mods that improve in one area while compromising in another, as you describe, usually in a trade-off between resolution & musicality-- were later corrected with improvements to power source. The experience of continuous improvement with a single player convinces me that absolute, not relative, comparisons are applicable when judging CDPs. Give me a player with high resolution, and mod it to add musicality. After the modding is done, one is finally up against the brick wall of the type of DAC or upsampler and the limitations of basic transport mechanism-- which doubtless together define the ultimate "flavor" of the machine. But there are so many compromises in most commercial players that short of SOTA, judging their quality based on type of DAC or upsampler is likely a red herring. This is why I'm inclined to restrict use of the "flavor" adjective to the best machines.

Dcaudio

Who did the cap and resistor work on your player.......or did you buy it that way? Also, hope the DAC works out for you.

Chuck

Tvad

I agree with your assesment that the house sound, as you call it, if sony has a house sound, is changed; no doubt. And also agree that once modded you probably can not go back; depending on the mods performed.

My modded SCD-1 is so far beyond where it started it isn't even close in comparision. I put about $1800 in mods and feel it was well worth it. I do not feel I could ever achieve this level of performance by simply adding a DAC; although I could be wrong. I wasn't willing to add another component in the food chain as I believe in less is more or simplicity over complexity.

The sony is an inexpensive player and the mods are inexpensive (IMO) especially given the performance gains. The resale value while always a consideration wasn't as much of a factor for me as I was searching for the best sonic improvements for the dollar. This becomes even more evident to me when I compare the performance of my player relative to what a competitive player costs. In most cases the depreciation of those players is more than what I paid for the mods and the player. Good discussion though as everyone here has valid points.

Chuck