A great component modifier has the ability to compress into a few hours a transformation of circuits that originally required years for their development. On most Japanese mass-market CD players, for instance, one can significantly upgrade the sound by installing a power-filter, outboarding the transformer, replacing the op amp output chips (one typically finds two standard Japanese op amp types: 4558, and 2114, which can easily be replaced by a Burr Brown OPA 2604), and replacing the output capacitors (usually in Japanese products there are Silmic 100 microfarad caps sitting right in front of the output connection, which can be replaced by a polypropylene WIMA MKP 4 10 microfarad for a few bucks, or if you want to spend more a Jensen or Hovland). I have taken a look inside the Mephisto II transport and the electronics (all situated on the left hand side) are slightly-modified C.E.C. electronics (Audiomeca outsource their electronics to Japan) and not as messy as one might think. If you find someone with experience modifying C.E.C. transports, they should have no problem with an Audiomeca unit. I have not yet got in touch with G&D, nor fully analyzed the circuit board, but my first impression is that there are definitely some places where the Mephisto II can be upgraded: power supply (definitely yes, thank god it is already outboard) caps (definitely yes) clock (definitely yes, but I think the pacing of the mK. II unit is pretty good without this) chips (yes, within limits). The C.E.C. circuits are better than mass-market Pioneer and Marantz, so the upgrade materials will be a little more expensive than an upgrade of the latter (I would say $300), but the work will require patience (caps will have to be relocated). What you will be left with (I expect, given my experience with isolation, PC, and resonance control on the Mephisto II) is a unit that is almost no comparison to the stock unit in immediacy and dynamics: just as Rcrump said. BTW, the laser is modified Sanyo still in production, so there is no chance in the near future (perhaps a little later, given the unstable Japanese economy: how are Sanyo stocks doing on the Nikkei?) that these lasers will be out of stock and Mephisto II owners will be left with a lovely piece of junk when their lasers burn out (as they will some day). In any case, the modified lasers need to be obtained from Audiomeca, since they specially weighted them and a stock Sanyo will not do.
