"Audiocom Mods & Services"

[Filterlab]

No need mate, the 2900 is far more capable than many CDPs at its price and more. Have you opened it up at all? The transport is one beefy piece of equipment, from what I remember it's a brass coloured chromium finished affair.

[Filterlab]

Well, the 2800 is anyway:

[Marco]

Hi Mark,

Your Superclock and Superegs are still doing sterling service in my DVD2900!

Good to see that I'm not the only satisfied Audiocom customer here

All I can say is that Mark has transformed my Sony X777ES/DAS-R1 into something very special indeed. I simply would not change it - ever!

You just don't get CD players like it anymore.

Marco.

[Audiocom AV]

Hello Marco

The Sony x777es & DAS-R1 are certainly rare breeds amongst Hi-Fi and products that were probably overlooked by many because they carried the Sony badge. Players like the x777ES inspired the Accuphase range and over the years of examining the innards of CD players I have seen little that gets close to the absolute engineering and high grade parts used in the x777ES. It is devoid of the modern day wizardry of 24 bit /192 KHz DAC’s, upsampling, but it should makes nonsense of the sound of many current CD players with these newer features. Take a look here; http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/s...77ES-more.html

Now the DAS-R1 is an even rarer item, dedicated, large encapsulated transformers for both digital & analogue supplies, and a bank of Grade 3 Nichicon Great Supply capacitors that keep most integrated amplifiers happy, Sony pulled all the stops out for this one from start to finish. The 4x TDA1541 S1 DAC chips are still amongst the best sounding DAC’s and the only choice for Zanden Audio in the 5000 model DAC., who claim the TDA1541 S2 is the best sounding chip ever made; http://www.zandenusa.com/products.html

Yes, it is a real pity that Sony’s interests now seem only focused on products like PS3’s and home theatre, and no longer make players to the standard of the x777ES, etc.

Regards,
Mark

[Filterlab]

Yes, it is a real pity that Sony’s interests now seem only focused on products like PS3’s and home theatre, and no longer make players to the standard of the x777ES, etc.

Regards,
Mark

Unfortunately that's where the money is these days, I guess Sony would rather make mainstream volume sellers (albeit well engineered, have you felt the weight of the PS3?) rather than low volume high end machines - there's plenty of manufacturers who undertake that.

However there are the classic Sony machines that will always be great, the 777, the SCD-1 etc etc.

[Marco]

You're right, Rob, but sadly I see it as more and more a move towards convenience over quality, which flies in the face of my purist principles. Of course that doesn't apply to your Apogee-based computer set-up, which was obviously carefully thought out and put together, and no doubt sounds superb.

Mark,

Now the DAS-R1 is an even rarer item, dedicated, large encapsulated transformers for both digital & analogue supplies, and a bank of Grade 3 Nichicon Great Supply capacitors that keep most integrated amplifiers happy, Sony pulled all the stops out for this one from start to finish.

Absolutely. When the Japanese 'big boys' decide to make a statement product they make a statement product!!

The DAS-R1 is superb in standard form, but I have to say that your modifications have elevated it to a different level entirely. It's probably one of the finest DACs I've ever heard, and its combination with your modified X-777ES is sublime.

The only player I've heard that competes with it to my ears is a tweaked Acoustic Precision Eikos I heard recently belonging to Anthony. It did the 'CD sounding like good vinyl' trick too, which you never hear these days with modern players.

I'm looking forward to the next set of mods. How much better can it get, I wonder?

Marco.

[Vinyl Grinder]

You're right, Rob, but sadly I see it as more and more a move towards convenience over quality, which flies in the face of my purist principles.

I think i'm safe in saying hi-fi as we all used to know & love it is well dead, might be the odd nice piece come out but that seldom happens, hi-fi's just going through the motions for the sake of it, as far as i'm concerned.

...................................

Rob what the hells that pile of shite in the tin box above? Build quality not come into the equation these days?

[Marco]

Andre,

There's still some fantastic equipment being made today, but it'll cost you plenty!

Have a look at those Zanden units in the link Mark posted for example. Now if I won the lottery that's what I'd buy. I've seen these in the flesh and they look and sound absolutely phenomenal. No bloody upsampling or unnecessary pissing about with the signal either!

Thing is though, in terms of absolute sonic performance how much better would the Zanden CDP combo sound compared to the Sony - maybe 10%? Like Mark says the Zanden uses the same DAC chips, and like the Zanden the Sony is also massively over-engineered, albeit not to the same lavish degree. In reality, therefore, there probably won't be *that* big a difference, apart from the price of course - yours for around £50k!!

You see that's the kind of ridiculous price you have to pay now to get the sort of performance from the Red Book format players such as the Sony produced in 1990... Hi-fi today has gone so far down the mass-market route that it's now impossible for manufacturers to use top quality components in their products and house them in the type of chassis that was commonplace on top players 15 years ago without charging a fortune.

These days with CD players (and anything else) it's all about cost cutting and mass production, so unless paying big money (above £5k) you'll more than likely get cheap DVD-ROMs, puny PSUs and off-the-shelf components, all inside a flimsy resonant box that will generally sound like shit.

So in general has CD progressed in terms of sonic performance since 15 years ago? Most definitely not!

But everyone is over the moon because they can download unlimited free music from the Internet and play it through a computer. New computer audio technology is great, and I for one gladly embrace it, but in many cases it has been largely responsible for the decline in hi-end audio. It will never be like it was in the heyday of the 1970s and 80s.

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Andre,

There's still some fantastic equipment being made today, but it'll cost you plenty!

Andre has a good point here, when I first got into hi-fi there was a massive budget range from lots of manufacturers, that made it really easy for me to get into (as I was only 11). Nowadays of course there's not really much below £500 for any component, unless one goes secondhand of course. In addition to that most manufacturers who were into proper hi-fi (Sony being a prime example) have now moved on to games consoles and MP3s etc etc and away from hi-fi. Of course hi-fi was a mainstream product ten years ago and before, but its time has passed for most and both consumers and manufacturers have moved towards the computer based side of things.

Luckily there will always be small manufacturers who cater for the minority, but it does make one wonder if it will last forever.

[leo]

Reason I built a diy dac using the TDA1541A S2, this oldie is still the best sounding chip available IMHO but the S2 is getting rare as hens teeth, I was lucky getting mine.
Attention to the regulation, active I/V output stage and jitter rewards you with some fantastic sounds with this chip