Best Sonos ZP-80 Mod?

Hi Jeff:

Yes, my goal is to have my Sonos system perform at least as good as some well respected & pricey cdp's.

My reference cdp is Electrocompaniet EMC-1 (24/192,) which had a $5K MSRP. This reference source was compared to the modded dac, driving $1K Dac's from PS & Monarchy and the $2250 Electrocompaniet ECD-1, which is essentially the Dac section of the EMC-1UP cdp. Amplification components used to evaluate were from: MBL, H2O, Cary.

In a second system, the modded ZP-80 fed the digital inputs on an Audio Aero Prestige Cd/SACD (I beleive that this lists close to 10K.)

Though the modded ZP-80 did sound better than the stock player, in both systems, the original cd definitely beat the Sonos playback. Furthermore, the improvements were more noticeable with the pricier AA player's dac & all tube Joule Electra amplification. Could this have been because the AA has a better dac section? Could this have been because of the nature of the J-E tube gear???

Again, I think that this is very system dependant. Your milage may vary.

I hope this helps.

I need to clarify that though I have not yet been able to acheive the level of performance that I desire from Sonos, I do feel the Cullen mod is a worthwhile improvement over the stock zone player.

The modded player with a good dac ($1K or under) very well may be comperable to cdp's that aproach $1-2K.

Again, I strongly feel that the benefits of the mod are system dependant.

Thanks Barrelchief. So your results are a bit of a mixed bag: definite improvement via the cullen mod, but still not enough to match your cdp's, even when using the same dac (the AA internal dac fed digital from sonos). Perhaps the limitation in rate via the sonos limits best possible results? I wonder if there are any other reasons we are not accounting for? You did seem to suggest that the differences were pretty definitive, so there is obviously something holding this back. The only other note I might add is to echo your statement that this is all probably very system dependent. I would assume, given the rest of your system, that you also have very revealing, high quality speakers as well. Obviously the less revealing the speakers, the less the perceived difference (duh!). Hopefully we can all get to the bottom of this and find a way to make sonos what we all want: equal to a quality cdp at roughly the same cost outlay (ie, 5k cdp = 5k investment in sonos, mod, dac combination)

Has anyone tried the Emperical Mod, it's more money and he really knows what he is doing. Perhaps even more than Cullen, in that the digital domain is his main focus.

Does anyone have experience comparing the Cullen modded ZP80 through a quality DAC with the regular Slim Squeezebox 3 or transporter.

I have both the Sonos system and SB3, as well as 3 high quality DACs (Lavry DA10, Naim Supernait and Resolution Audio Opus 21......the latter two of which have built in DACs which can be accessed by digital sources)

Comparing the digital outs of the basic SB3 to the basic ZP80, the SB3 is far superior.....less congested, less compressed, better soundstage and instrument separation.

I do like the convenience of the Sonos system though. If I am to spring $500+ to get the Cullen mods, I would hope I would be getting a significant upgrade from the SB3 quality and close to the Opus 21 CD player quality.

Quite a specific scenario, I know, but does anyone have any insight to answer these questions?

Thanks, Nigel