Celery and Mike, If it's really 40-70 parts replaced why doesn't EC just replace the board(s) with modded ones at the dealer or end-user level (like the DAC upgrade)?
If the mods are sufficiently minor such that EC prefers to have them performed at the distributor level, then why can't dealers perform them? And thus why wouldn't dealers offer parts kits (without warranty, of course) to skilled end-users or repair services?
Either EC is to be congratulated for offering such a totally
comprehensive upgrade for $800 that MUST be performed under distributor control because of its tediousness or complexity (assuming that board replacement would cost even more!), or the whole thing is a scam wherein only a few parts are being swapped, and nobody gets to know that because it's all performed under the hood in EC's garages!
Hate to be skeptical, but....
Celery, I appreciate your attempt to characterize the improvements as "30%", but aren't you the guy who listened to the UPped MkII in ANOTHER system in ANOTHER room? Sorry if I'm confusing you with another poster....
If your comments indeed are after listening sessions in YOUR system at home, then I have no choice but to trust your impressions, less normal regard for expectation bias, of course.
EC's DAC upgrade last year was handled quite efficiently: dealers were allowed to install these very small DAC boards at their local shops, charging somewhere between their cost and the $1000 suggested list price.
I just don't know why EC hasn't engineered a similarly-clean scenario for these later upgrades. Do dealers REALLY want to handle sending 50lb rigs back and forth to J-S?
Yech. Cracking the hood and installing two modded boards locally would be a lot cleaner for all concerned, and clearly cheaper. I'll continue to be openminded yet skeptical. Seeing even a parts count or coded parts list, if not the entire procedure manual, could convince me that this is a fair upgrade.
I can't countenance that there are those who spend thousands on ICs to get slight improvements. We all have to settle somewhere on the steepening hill of dimished returns.
My sense of value demands that EC is selling LOTS of parts here for $800, AND that the improvements are significant to those like me with revealing systems for which they're intended; I suppose I could scratch my head if, after learning from SEVERAL end-users with some objectivity that the sonic benefits are worthwhile, AND THEN finding out that there were only two replaced caps, for example, that the cost could still be rationalized as reasonable. I'd pay for it if the benefits are there.
But so far no-one has proven that the mods are extensive and worthwhile except one dealer and one end-user.
My system still has SLIGHT vestigial digititis on some music. I chalk it up to software, and doubt that mods to the CDP could change that. A slightly softer cable (Discovery Essence) dialed in a happy balance between ruthless exposure to detail and rolling off the slight upper edges.
Please try to elucidate the changes you experience with the mods. If any of you are in a position to alternate listening sessions with an unmodded and moded player then of course your impressions and reactions would carry much more weight. Eliminating expectation bias when a business or customer's $800 are at stake is damned difficult.
I'm still listening, and grateful for all your efforts.
Good night.
Ern
