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vmps, art d/io, & boldercables.com

as many know, i am fond of vmps, & the art di/o dac. well, the vmps rm-40 has won a "best in show" award at the recent ces. and, here's a quote from vmps' brian cheney to wayne, of boldercables.com, who supplied brian w/a modded di/o. wayne charges $200 for these mods to the ~$130 di/o, & having done most all the mods to *my* di/o, i can easily say it's a most fair price! ;~) anyway, here's what brian had to say to wayne:

"...We used the DIO as our digital source throughtout the Show, since we thought the Sig 9 Muse player loaned to us did not sound as good. My transport was my own 10 year old Krell MD 10."

just thought y'all might want to know... :>)

doug s.

sedond
sedond OP
1,387 posts
 
good luck, joe. re: soldering, really - w/a 30w iron & the $10 rat-shack desolderer, ya don't have to be an expert. as far as electronics knowledge goes, i'm basically an electronics illiterate, but i could still do it, cuz all ya have to do is follow instructions! ;~) every mod is clearly delineated as to what needs to be done... but, wayne at boldercables will do most all of 'em for ya, for $200...

regards, doug s.

brianw
373 posts
 
All I can add is that there is a HUGE difference between stock and modified. Albert Porter has sent his off to the same guy that modified mine for $140.00. The guy did all mods described at cfrasers site, minus the Class A mod, plus socketed the A/D chip so you can pull the chip disabling that circuit. He also placed the voltage divider internally so ANY digital cable can be used, as I'd like to experiment with better quality cables. I've heard both good and bad reports from those that have the Class A bias of the op-amp. I decided against it. After seeing what is done inside, I'd have to say that Waynes' price is more than fair.
plato
1,543 posts
 
I unpacked my freshly modified DI/O today and saw that Wayne returned all my old parts in a zip-lock bag. He replaces a lot more parts than I even realized -- IC chips, a lot of electrolytic caps, resistors, diodes, and the cheapo RCA jacks (digital & analog). I am impressed with the amount of work he did. All those parts together don't look like they'd physically fit inside the tiny DAC!

I'll have to get this little beast back in my system; possibly on Thursday, but definitely by the weekend!
sean
6,231 posts
 
The Chicago Audio Society did a "shoot-out" comparing the Art Dio to an Electrocompaniet all in one cd player. Of course, they used the Electro as the transport into the Dio. From what our newsletter said, the Electro was picked as sounding better WITHOUT the Dio hooked up. Then again, i think that this was a bone stock Dio, so who knows what would've happened after modifications. One thing is for sure, the ART is WAY cheaper : ) Sean
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rcrump
427 posts
 
VMPS used the Art D/IO into the 18K CTC Blowtorch full function preamp at the CES which nobody seems to have picked up on......

Bob Crump
CTC Builders
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