scd 777es sacd sony mod worth it?

Detloff, ya shoulda contacted me, I would've given you Jerry's number; hope the Audience mod is to your liking, it's gotten good feedback. I had the same feelings about the 777ES, that's why I went for my mod; it was nice sounding but lacked that "aliveness" I get from the Audio Logic. Kubla, Musicslug's advice is worth emphasizing, you'll void the warranty with any mod. Ozment's is reversible fairly easily, but I'm harboring no false expectations about warranty repairs. As it is, given Sony's customer service reputation, maybe I'm not giving up that much after all......

Hi: The best you can do is to search AudioAsylum for this name. In brief, there were about a dosen highly positive reports of modifications of SA-14, SCD-1, 777es and 333es.
I also planning to give his some component (other then 9000es which was already modifyed by Stan Warren excelently). Richard's mod do not change the sonic signature of the equipment, they preserve it but makes it much better. This is my impression after all these positive reports. Simon (If you speak with him again - my regards)
Good luck with whatever you decide!

thanks guys! and as far as sony's 'warranty' goes i'm with you rcprince. and since i bought mine used i'm probably screwed anyway. but let's not scare anyone off this little darling. i love the 777 but there's always room for growth in a relationship.
:)

I had Richard Kern (Audiomod) do a $480-plus-shipping upgrade of the audio board caps (to Rels) and resistors (to Vishays) and the power supply caps (to Black Gates). After a 300-hour burn-in, both SACD and Redbook performance was significantly improved (broader, deeper, and better-defined soundstage all the way to the rear corners, sweeter top, more authoritave bass, more nuanced timbre)...Redbook to the point where I moved my modified Counterpoint/Alta Vista Audio 24/96 DAC to another system.

Note that the mod will invalidate your warranty. If you're comfortable with that, I think you'll find the mod an extremely cost-effective enhancement of the 777's performance. The workmanship is top-notch.

I sent my 777es to Richard at Audience in March. Mines the first they've done (doing). They couldn't get the Sony people to give them a service manual of this unit, apparently Sony doesn't do this on new models, ergo Audience has had to trace out all the circuits on their own without the aid of the service manual. This is more than a mod, they are essentially rebuilding/replacing much of the unit where they deem necessary, including a new analog output stage. The initial estimate of around $1600 for the full monty is actually $2800, it went up after they got into the process and saw how difficult it was, particularly sans service manual. I've been told this modification/re-engineering will put this unit on par with any player out there at any price. We'll see. I hope so. It's been a loooong process, and costly. However, given what I'll have in the unit with the original price of the unit(good deal on A'gon) plus mod fees, it could still potentially be a reasonable bang for the buck if it's as good as Audience says it will be. I'll soon find out, mine is supposed (supposed) to be done any time now. If you're considering this process, you may want to wait a tad and I'll let you know what I think. Or you may have already sent yours, or you may not care what I think. Whatever, I'd be happy to relate my experience to whomever is interested. I'm hoping for the best, and will be cursing anything less.