Which cd player: New /w Mod or just plain new?

Ever think of trying a non-os DAC? You can read up on the design philosophy at Audio Note and Sakura Systems (47 Labs) websites. Simplicity in design, no up/over sampling, and no filtering equals very analog sounding musical reproduction. If that's the sound you're after.

This feedback is great! A more specific question: I never really considered mods until I logged on. Now it seems people are saying it's better to buy some $2000 player and spend $3000 on a mod than to buy a $5000 player. Does anyone have experience with "Reference Audio Mods"? There claims are wild. In a nutshell; what's up with all this mod stuff.

"Does anyone have experience with "Reference Audio Mods"? There claims are wild."

That statement says a lot more than you probably intended it to say. There are lots of mod shops out there and all have different philosophies and marketing approaches. Two shops I have a lot of respect for are TRL and Modwright. Paul Weitzel and Dan Wright are two very talented engineers who know how to treat customers fairly and truly stand behind their work. I heard Dan's Sony and Denon players at RMAF, with his new preamp, and I have personal experience with TRL mods. Both shops offer quality services at reasonable prices. I chose TRL because of the vast experience they possess in building high end equipement, in addition to performing mods on just about any digital source you can imagine, for a $550 standard fee no less.

I would encourage you to call both Paul and Dan to discuss your needs. I think you'll find the information they provide very helpful in your research.

BTW - in the opinions of several people I spoke with recently, at CES just recently a TRL modified Sony DVP-NS900V outperformed a modified Marantz that cost $12K. I'm not going to name the vendor who got smoked, but they were mentioned in a recent post.

I am very curious about the mods myself. If it is that good why don't manufacturers like Denon or Sony jump on it and make mass production out of it - they would be making killing money considering the popularity here on audiogon.

Large corporations manufacture to a price point. When you look at huge corporations like Sony and Denon with vast networks of distribuotrs, dealers, and retailers to support, not to mention huge overhead and having to sell volume to create adequate margins, sometimes things just get lost in th shuffle. These corporations have pools of talented engineers who probably have loads of ideas as to how to make their products better, but the bean counters and marketing schmucks squash them.

The mod shops take advantage of the opportunities the large corporations pass on and it's certainly not hurting Denon's or Sony's bottom line, so they have at it. Which makes it great for us in the end.