Who can modify a Yamaha s2300 Universal Player?

Hydra --

The Yamaha s2300 is a nice unit, but I would not
recommend going to a Universal Player if you have
the space for two boxes instead of one. You can get
better sound and just as good a picture. If you're
willing to spend a little more, like $2,000 and willing
to buy used, you can do WAY better. If you're interested,
I'll tell you how. If you feel you must have it all
in one box and your budget is somewhere around 1,000 --
The Yamaha will work for you. It did a nice job for
me, but I no longer use it for music play-back, just
for DVD's.

Is the sound really that bad? And I don`t care if it`s one unit or two, so I`d like to hear your opinion on how to get better sound . Thanks.

I played my Yamaha s2300 through a Proceed AVP2+6.

It sounded pretty good.

Recently, I bought a Sony SCD XA777ES used, here on
Audiogon for $1,600. I bought it for my younger brother
for his birthday. Actually, I bought him that and a
Denon DVD 1600, which plays DVD's and DVD-A's. Since
I bought them both used [$300 for the Denon], I had to
open them up and throw 'em in my rack to make sure they
worked properly.

While the Yamaha s2300 sounded pretty good, the Sony
is MAJOR upgrade. Whole different ballpark. On CD and
SACD. I had a hard time putting it back in the box, but
I had to because it was a birthday present.

For less than $2,000 -- and in two boxes -- my brother
can play just about any 5" disc in one box or the other. He has CD and SACD playback that is reference quality.
The Sony was rated A+ by Stereophile and received a golden
ear award from TAS. The Denon has scored highly in both Secrets of Home Theatre and TAS shoot-outs. It is free of the "Chroma bug" and is a nice DVD player. It's DVD-A playback is about the same as the Yamaha s2300.

If you're willing to buy used, willing to go to two boxes
instead of one, and willing to spend another $1,000, you
can get WAY better sound than either a Yamaha s2300 or
a Denon 2900, you get similar DVD quality, and between
them, you can play any format.

If you have any problem finding a Denon 1600, The Panasonic XP-50 will also work in that set-up. It is also a highly
rated DVD player with DVD-A playback.

The other nice thing about this set-up is that when you
get the next urge to upgrade, you can have the Sony modified to take it to even higher levels. Most of the
mod guys have mods for the Sony and the mods have been
well-reviewed. So, in a sense, this set-up is also future-
proof.

Thank you for the info, it sounds like a good option. I just have another question for you, What are your thoughts on Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai? It`s also a universal player with MSRP of $1200.00. Have you had any experiense with this unit? Thanks.

The Pioneer DV47Ai is an interesting unit, but as a DVD
player, it flunked the Secrets of Home Theatre shoot-out.

I believe you will always pay a sonic price for trying to
have it all in one box.

And, you can get really good DVD players now for $300.

Why pay $1,200 for a DVD player that flunked a shoot-out?

I just think, when you can assure yourself of a really
good DVD player for $300, why not separate it out and
spend the wad on music playback.

But, that's also because music is a high priority for me.

I also don't like to paint myself into dead-ends with
my gear. If you buy a Universal Player and then want
to significantly upgrade your sound, you go buy a CD/SACD
player and suddenly you've got a 1,000 -- 1,200 DVD player
on your hands.

That's what I did and I wouldn't do it that way again.

But, if music isn't that important to you, you're not
the type to get itchy and upgrade, and you want to save
space, I had a good experience with my Yamaha s2300 and
under those parameters, I would recommend it to you.

I would look at that player or the Denon. I would also
check out the Marantz Universal Player. The Marantz
didn't score well as a DVD player, but some have said
they can live with the DVD aspect because it is much
better than the Yamaha and Denon on music playback.

I believe the Marantz sells for something like $1,400
[New].