Bargain Priced SACD Giant Killer?

Having spend time in both the VMPS and APL rooms, I would have to say that Alex had the best sound. Of course, there are many differences other than the players.

Alex attacking people and other companies offline with unsolicited harassing emails to Audiogon members?????

C'mon Clio- he only communicates "With all due respect".

how did this thread get off track ?

this thread asked for a best bang for buck mod or player. i think the TRL mods are on the cheaper side, right? so i suggested it as a possibility. but if i had the dough, i'd go for APL's mod. Somewhere in the middle is where I ended up, very happy I might add. The VSE level 5 mod is really oustanding. Definitely betters many players I've had, including the BAT VK D5SE and the Wadia 860x.

The TRL mods are definitely on the less expensive side and provide significant bang for the buck, which fits in with the theme of the thread. However, I would not under estimate the amount of work that goes into the mods, especially with the DVP-NS900V. Based on my conversations with TRL there appears to be 25+ hours of work in modifying this player. Using $40/hr. as a base (it's $80/hr. where I live) thats $1000, for labor only, no parts. Already that is nearly twice the $550 standard mod fee TRL charges (BTW - a certain poster to this thread would lead you to believe that TRL mods are nothing more than dropping some magnetic material on the DAC chips and then covering it with epoxy - I don't think TRL would have been able to do over 600 digital mods with not one customer taking them up on their money back gurantee if this was the case).

While I respect what other mod shops charge for their services, it would be foolish as a buyer to equate price with quality. Like buying unmodded new or used audio, there are bargains (to me where benefit to cost ratio is extremely high), fair deals, and deals to good to be true (which is normally the case).

As a final note the suggestion to modify the SCD-1 is a very good one.