Underwood HiFi Ultimate Mod Denon 3910

Hi Ed,
Regarding DVD-A, DVD-V and SACD multichannel performance, I find the 3910 does a tremendous job. It might just be the subwoofer that gives the player that added rock and roll umph it lacks on straight 2 channel CDs. Or maybe it's the added resolution as I do find SACD and DVD-A 2 channel more "meaty" than the usual CD sound.

Have you investigated the mods and how they work with MCH output? Only the front 2 channels are tubed. The remaining channels benefit only from the PS upgrades unless you opt for the additional "level 2" mods for them. I didn't go this far. Do I miss them? That's hard to say. I doubt my MCH speaker set up is likely to make these mods audible anyway.
Sounds, though, like you might want to go for the MCH mods too.

I have a non modded 3910 that I have in another HT system and I can say that for what ever reasons the modded player has better video performance too. I can only guess it's the upgraded PS at work here.

When my first player arrived DOA I was asked by Glenn to open the unit and do a bit of fault checking. With the top off you can really see the quality of the mods - they look OEM in every way. Whatever happened to the player to kill it you could tell it wasn't an issue with its build, it's all top notch work.

Colopilot,

Thanks for your update post. The other channels do not matter to me because I'm strictly a 2-channel guy even with video. The dynamics, base, soundstaging and tonal balance I get with this system doesn't surround sound, and I would not want to spend the money to make multiple channels equal the sonic quality of the left and right channels. So the mods to just first two-channels are fine with me. So I'm really only concerned with how Ultimate Mod Denon 3910 will do with rock videos. If does the job for them, it will do the job for movies as well.

If not, then I need to look at something like the Ayre D-1xe or an Esoteric or the latest Classe. I want to get it used and I don't want to spend too much because I cannot yet foresee what's going to happen over the next few years with the DVD technology.

John,

Thanks for your update post. Your DV-60 with the RAM mods might be the better choice for me (and I can salivate a bit thinking about it), but I'm trying to stay under $4,000 and your modded DV-60 looks to be well worth what you're asking. Also, I'm stuck at the moment with these issues: (1) I don't have an available balance input on my Ayre K-1xe preamp because I bought it with the phono stage which takes up one of the 3 balanced inputs, then I bought the Aesthetix Io Signature which needs to stay balanced to provide its best sonics, and, of course, the Ayre C-5xe also needs to stay in balanced mode to provide its best. (2) My InFocus ScreenPlay 110 operates in 800 x 600 resolution so it can't take advantage of the 1080p performance and it does not have an HDMI input.

At some point in the future, maybe during my vacation in October I may return the K-1xe to Ayre to have the phono stage removed and give me the 3rd balanced input for another balanced source, but that is months away. At some point, I will replace the InFocus ScreenPlay with a 1080p projector, but probably not until late 2008 or early 2009.

I can get a used Ayre D-1xe for $3,300 to $3,500, which should do the job I need for movies and rock videos (although it won't give me a tube alternative to the C-5xe for CDs, SACDs and DVD-As), and I think I can stretch that far.

Thanks again to both of you,

Ed