TRL 595-how good is it?

Lets be honest, there is no way a $700 modded player will perform as good as a $20,000 + Player.

Thus far all this thread has added is:
1. This is a top secrete mod that no body knows what's inside.
2. Many people will be selling off there modded units but can't disclose who they are(because they dont want to ruin there Used Resale value) or do we know what mods those sellers have.

If this unit is so great for so little money, TRl should make these units full time and they would be flying off the shevles.
Yes, I believe you get what you pay for.

Ozzy-

I think TRL is doing a lot of these, actually. One person had TRL source them the 595 when they placed their order instead of shipping one to them and TRL stated that they order from 10-30 a week for modding. That is separate from the ones people send them.

TRL and Paul Weitzel have a lot of products and projects.
I have no idea what part of their revenue this represents of their business, but after the pro reviews come out-there will no doubt be even more requests.

I think the whole modding business is part technical/hardware and mostly art of the design and ability to systemically create an end product synergy of sound.

I am sure there are "house" voicings by all modders based upon what they feel is the ideal reproduction of music.
I believe that whether it is any of the very fine modders (Wright, Empirical Audio, APL, TRL, etc) you are paying for their intellectual design for that unit or brand line.

I don't know exactly how TRL makes the 595 so good. They certainly know what they are doing and I like their "house" sound.

I think the only thing you can do is try and give one a listen, if possible, and see what you think.

Guys, it is real fun reading this thread. Thanks Mr. Smilin...:-)

Now, I am wondering, what would be a cost effective modification which is highly proprietary and sells for $550 (assuming the base machine cost is about $100)?

Looking at the Service Manual of the 595, it can be clearly seen that it does not cost even $50 for Sony to manufacture this little puppy.

I am sure that it sounds good for the money, or even better, but a little and as cheap as it can get player can only do so much. I am also sure that TRL has done a great job with possible power supply, clock and their tube output mod, but this is not changing the fact that we are talking about $50 machine to begin with.

Better than $20K machines, even more, better than Meitner? I’d think many times before making this kind of statement...:-)

Enjoy the music!

Regards,
Alex

Hi Lkdog,

I am glad that you brought up the "house" voicings/sound issue. Would you elaborate more on the house sound of TRL unit and, better yet, possible comparison with other modders if you had prior experience. I believe that will be helpful for us to know what to expect or how that's going to work (synergistically) in our systems. Thanks.

The work done to the TLR is "propietary" , meaning that it's a secret and the reviews from actual owners don't specify anything meaningful. The only one that told something is at the www.audioasylum.com reviews section. It includes an IEC, replaced some caps and eliminate some filtering settings. The transport is dampened too and it doesn't include any tubes. There is another thread very interesting ( which includes postings by LKdog and myself )and that explained a few things and future reviews from Positive Feedback and 6Moonaudio.

Paul seems to be a great person and a dedicated proffesional with lots of knowledge in digital designs. People who owned his equipments and modifications are very happy with his work. He has a site, www.tuberesearchlabs.com and it has usefull information.