Modded Players

Ric Schultz of EVS used to do extensive modifications of these players a while back, but later dropped them in favor of much less expensive Panasoncic DVD players and later Samsung/ Toshiba DVD-A/SACD players, which he described to sound much better than the Phillips with much less mods. Given that the Phillips 963sa has some reliability problems as well, I recommend that you move on to something else. Ric is no longer doing mods, but RAM is doing mods on newer Samsung DVD players that I think would be worth to check out. They have a current ad on Audiogon right now. I had Ric modify a Samsung for me, and will never look back. Transformed my system, where I had a transport, upsampler DIP, and DAC setup before.

Krelldog, I had my Marantz sa12s1 player done by the Upgrade company and it turned out great! But the shocker was when David Schulte owner of the Upgrade company sent me a moddest JVC player and told me to try this against the Upgraded Marantz and it was hard to tell which was better. About 2 weeks later he told me to send the JVC back to him and he was going to send another JVC (same model different unit) to try again. This time the JVC beat the Marantz and I was stunned. He did the same thing with a guy that has a Ayre CX7 and the JVC played just as well.
If this makes you feel any better he Upgrades Reimyo units and a lot of Esoteric's. I have never asked him about any Phillips units but I have heard good reviews on that 963sa. You are definetly headed in the right direction with modifications and actually the unit will not be totally modified. Bad parts will be taken out and good parts put in which is easier on the pocket book. Just look at his testimonials and then call him. He is very knowledgable and trust worthy. He could have easily took my money and upgraded my Proceed HPA-3 amp. Instead he told me to go and buy the Nuforce 9.02 amps because he is that impressed with those amps and now so am I.
The two players I have now beat out the Krell DVD Standard, Arcam FMJ DV27a and that was with the first JVC unit. Schulte has compared a ton more units against each other even after the upgrades are done. I was told the Denon 2900 was a great player after the upgrades. Easily better than his upgraded JVC he has now. It is better than his upgraded transport and dac unit which I dont get into.
I do not have one regret with these moddifications and plan to do more. I hope this helps.

Sony DVN-900S, modded by TRL (Tube Research Labs). Blows away any digital I have ever heard. I'm looking for another one to send to Paul.

Shoot him an email, he'll tell you if it's worth modding or not. I was going to send him my Marantz 8260, he said it can sound good but if you want something amazing find a Sony 900. I had my doubts, but man am I glad I listened to him.

Flat $550 for all mods. It really is amazing.

I was looking to spend up to about $3000, couldn't find anything that came close. I have talked to people who say the Sony 900 mod betters their $12,000 separates.

Thinking I would try cheap rather than expensive transports first time around,I bought an Aiwa modded by Stan W.Then a Panasonic modded by EVS,then a Toshiba modded by RAM.All are similiar,all are good,though I cannot give a comparisan to any mutli-K$ players out there,because I havent heard them.But I hope to as I'm very curious,good luck,Bob

Actaully I think that the mod price on the Sony 900 through TRL may be getting raised to $750 due the extensive labor involved, but they could tell you if they have implemented that new price yet.

Other places to research are Modwright and Empirical Audio.