scd 777es sacd sony mod worth it?

Well, yesterday was the great day. It was a long wait of about four months, but it certainly was worth it. Right out of the box and unbroken in, my preliminary findings are:
SACD play:
1. Dynamics of quite a new order, punch galore.
2. The grain in the highs and upper mids is gone.
3. Bass seems deeper, cleaner, faster
4. Midrange is more open
5. Soundstage deeper, wider.
6. you can listen deeper into the musical presentation, and with more minute detail revealed. Certainly more PRAT.

Redbook CD:

Quick comparison with ML 30.6/31.5/Purcell upsampler combo:

SONY/Audience mod: Soundpresentation more forward, closer, more direct, (first row instead of about 6th ) more roughshot for the time being, less refined and dissolved, however a tad more dynamic-punchy, highs still a bit etchy. But don't forget, the unit is just out of the box. I may be in for quite a surprise after about 400 hours or so. The unit is on repeat now, breaking it in. Cheers,

Detlof, How much did that set you back?

Mike, quite a bit, not counting shipping from Europe to the US and back about 2900 bucks! But it seems to be worth it. If you look at their webside, which shows all that they have done with this mod, it does not seem a rip-off, but fairly reasonable. (audience-av.com)

Well Detloff, I'm glad to see you got your player back and that the mod seems to be worth the money. Let me know if you agree or disagree with me about how SACD done right stacks up to vinyl. I recently upgraded my Ovation with the Debut platter/bearing/vacuum, and I still think SACD is similar to it in many ways--better in some, not quite as engaging in others, but clearly a level up from even upsampled CD. And something I can listen to in the same listening session as vinyl without a letdown.

Rcprince, you make a few excellent points. Its a bit early to tell still, but my experience seems to point into the same way as you suggest. Haven't listened to classical music yet, but with the Jazz stuff I listened to, I felt I could get easily drawn into the music, which is always a good sign. I marvel at the dynamics, which seem to better those of vinyl, but I hate the hiss, (mind you, you have that on some of the old Mercury LPs as well, but I hate that there too) which my ELS's and plasma tweeters reveal mercilessly. This is disturbing, especially at pppp levels, which the unit itself seems to disolve very well.