CD Player Modifications. Is it worth the ?

I own a Stan Warren modified Pioneer CD/DVD 5 disc changer.
I have personaly taken the unit to 3 audio salons and at least 7 other audiophiles houses. It also has been the digital reference for 3 Chicago Audio Society Meetings.
Sean, your friend took Stan Warrens words out of context. When Stan said that the unit was soft in the bass, he was referrng to the new pioneer dvd players with the new (cheaper) dac. He doesn't recommend modifing the brand new units. Please get your facts straight if you are going to badmouth Stan Warren or something that you haven't even heard for yourself. You told a friend of mine that you know Rich & myself. We do not believe that we know you.
Rich and I have spent the last 3 years trying to find the best affordable digital products. We have listened to $100.00 cd players on up to $20,000 dac and transports. The Pioneer may not be the best unit that we have heard but it sure is one of the top 5. It has sounded better to us than units from Wadia, Theata, Electrocompaniet, Krell, Levinson, and Sony SACD units to name a few. A couple of months ago we brought it into an audio salon that sells Accuphase and put my Pioneer up against a $12,000 cd player with upsampling. 3 out of 4 audiophiles strongly felt that the Pioneer was the more accurate sounding player. The person that disagreed worked for the store.
The Pioneer definately ranks up their with some of the best digital available reguardless of price. The only reason that I am selling my pioneer is because the Stan Warren modified MSB/Aiwa combination is the best that we have ever heard reguardless of price. We obviosly have not heard every unit out there, but we have heard a substantial number.
The Pioneer is also very finicky for getting the best performance. It needs to be mass loaded. A 5 lb. bag of sand on top of the unit works best. We found the Pioneer to sound the best when you use Mapleshades Isoblocks sitting underneath a 2" thick solid maple wood block with Final's Durumas sitting between the maple wood and the Pioneer.

I'd like to add to my post above, that I also have the Stan modified Aiwa to go with my Stan MSB Link II. Greggstraley, you may want to note that I recently tried running it with the MSB P1000 power base and felt it took another step up in authority accross the whole frequency range.

Thanks for the note on the DVD player. I will try the sand bag with my DV333 in the other system. A sand bag worked well back when I owned the original Cambridge CD4.

Wow, I had an Aiwa XC-30M 5 disc carousel. I guess I should have never sold it to my brother for $25, LOL. It just had too many blinking buttons and noisy loading sound when it shuffled discs. I think this was the forerunner of the XC-35Ms and XC-37Ms. I wonder if my old XC-30M shares this same "world class" transport anomily as the later units?

The unit I replaced it with was a Marantz CC-47 carousel (1bit DAC, yuck!) that was much quieter, smoother, switched discs faster, and had S/PDIF out via RCA (instead of toslink like the AIWA).

Aroc. I believe the XC-30M was the first. Stan Warren replaces the toslink in favor of his own designed setup. Mine is the XC-35M, but I have a new unmodified XC-37M in the closet as a back-up. They recently stopped making the XC-37M. I wonder if they will make a new model?

If you run to eBay someone is selling off some left over new XC-37M. The link is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1330987248

All i can say is "WHATEVER".

Since some of you seem to think you know what took place better than the guy that was involved in the conversation and transaction, i'll let you believe what you want to. In the meantime, PLEASE get YOUR facts straight. If need be, the owner of said unit will verify that Stan told him what he did.

My one question is WHY would Stan tell him that the newer units would not have the bass response of his Sony when Stan already knew what unit he had and was going to modify ? As mentioned, it is not one of the newer "bad dac" units but is a Pioneer 434. If i remember correctly, Stan already had the unit in his possession but had not begun to work on it when that conversation took place. I may be wrong on that part, but i can verify it if need be.

As to having to "defend" Stan Warren, i did not "impune" him in the least. You are letting emotions enter into what SHOULD be a logical discussion and putting words in my mouth. I actually stated that i applaud his honesty in the matter. If you read my follow up reply, i stated that i think that he is a very capable and experienced engineer and tweaker and placed him above another well regarded and respected "modifier" of gear. Once again, that is simply a "comment" that i made and my PERSONAL OPINION.

As to having to "defend" your personal preference ( or someone else's ) in a piece of gear, RELAX. My comments were just that: comments. I passed on information that has been passed onto me directly from the sources. Unfortunately, everyone does NOT hear the same or have the same tastes or goals when it comes to a music reproduction systems or even the type of music that they listen to. I'm glad that you enjoy what you have and i'm glad that some others have agreed with you, but GET OVER IT. You can't tell me what is best nor can i tell you. That is why there are SOOOO many brands, models, designs, modifications, etc...

Until EVERYONE can universally agree that specific components are the best ( BAR NONE ) and someone assembles a system of those specific components, OR can verify that they have the most perfect "golden eared" hearing, it all boils down to PERSONAL PREFERENCE. As it turns out, the people that listened to this specific unit did not PREFER it to some of the other units that THEY had. That is not to say that you, or anyone else for that matter, would necessarily agree with their observations and opinions.

As to what i have or am using, that is NOT the point. Nor did i EVER say that what i had or was using was "better". I specifically stated that i "MIGHT" have the opportunity to audition said unit. At that point in time, i'll be able to see where i stand on the issue. Until then, i can't pass judgment or offer anyone MY "opinion". Whether i love the unit or hate it, i'm NOT going to post my results either way. I don't feel like being dragged through the mud, being crucified and having people yell "heretic" at me while throwing stones. I don't need that from EITHER side of the fence.

I appologize for trying to share honest yet "alternative" points of view. Obviously, this was NOT what some people wanted to see and hear. If this has offended some of you, robbed you of your manhood, made you feel humiliated in public or reduced the resale value of your product, TOO BAD. Grow up and figure out that not everybody likes the same things or has the same impressions. That includes audio, cars, food, types of socks and underwear, etc.... Nor is every "test" conducted under the same conditions. There are therefore a LOT of variables involved that nobody can account for.

Now i'm going to go and eat my peanut butter and sardine sandwich with mustard, mayo and onions. Don't tell me that this isn't good, cuz i know better. Besides that, i've done testing at several different deli's and 35 out of 36 people liked it better than pimento loaf with hot sauce and dried clams on "aged" bagels. The one guy that didn't like it was the one that made the competing sandwich. Obviously, he was biased and we were "right".... Sean
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