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why no killer multichannel mods?

Like many of you, I've been following the mega-thread on the Eosteric DV-50 vs. the modded universal players. Interesting stuff.

I am disappointed how few mods (and players) are really built for killer multichannel high-rez playback. Sure Modwright and Underwood do multichannel mods, but these are just opamp swaps, for the most part. The modders really seem to have their heart in building discrete analog output stages, like the APL, Modwright Ultimate Truth mod, Exemplar, etc., but nobody has really tried to design a high end multichannel output stage. I would even welcome a discrete solid state output stage mod, but nobody has done it.

When it come to highend universals, don't talk about the Linn. I might be able to swing the price of a used DV-50, but not a Linn. Even the DV-50 gets most of its good reviews for its 2 channel performance through the balanced outputs.

I really think that a lot of the benefit of SACD is multichannel, but their seems to be a lot less interest in that on the part of the moddrs, and the rest of the folks on this forum and elsewhere. Too bad.

Just putting this out there as a suggestion...
diw
diw OP
33 posts
 
all one has to do is listen to the recent mercury reissues, in just 3 channel SACD, and it's obvious how incredible a matched center channel can be. And surrounds make the effect that mcuh more immersive...

I am sure the Underwood (to do all 5 channels is priced rather excessively, I think) or Modwright multichannel mod (more reasonable in price) improves the sound. But when people post how incredible the APL 2 channel mod is; I ask, why can't we get that kind of mod for MC?
aplhifi
515 posts
 
Diw, this is a good question. Of course it is possible to do the MC mod if requested, but the majority of the Audiophiles sitll go for Stereo and this might be the reason why MC mods are not widely offered. Personally, I do not like MC. I am a guy who wants to sit on the first row and enjoy. Imagine 10 feet deep, 6 feet tall and 20 feet wide holographic sound image projected infront of you that expands far away from the outer side of your speakers. That is all I care about.

As for the MC mod, you can have it anytime you want. Of course, since there is no space for 3 tubes and 6 output transformers, the mod will be all Solid State with MOSFET analog output stage. The "full monty" would involve 3 DAC boards, 6 coupling transformers and 6 MOSFET output stages. As you can imagine, it gets really pricey, even without tubes.

Regards,
Alex
diw OP
33 posts
 
so, I have to ask, how much would it cost to mod a denon 2900, for example?
tbg
5,263 posts
 
John Tucker does a Denon 3910 multi-channel without the tube analog stage for at least one dealer. I know very little else about it.
dsremer
210 posts
 
I recently talked to both Walter(Underwood)and Mike(HRAM)about their mods to the Denon dvd3910, both are introducing a new tube mod for this player.Walter indicated that his mod was a total revamping of the current player and would be >$4000.00 I ended up going with (HRAM) 3 channel with new clock
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