Originally Posted by
Marco
Fair enough, but does it use SMPS, as opposed to regulated linear PSUs? If so, for me the jury's out, in terms of what influence that will have on its sound, and crucially how the noise SMPS units chuck onto the mains, affects other components sharing the same supply.
We've already had discussions on AoS where our resident EEs have confirmed that, although SMPS done well can be very good, it's still not going to as good as the BEST examples of the linear regulated variety.
I'm old school, and so believe that any truly great piece of hi-fi equipment starts with a a truly great (overspecced) regulated linear PSU, and that no compromises whatsoever should be made in that area, in order for said equipment to excel, sonically. The power supply is the beating heart of all hi-fi equipment! And so that's always where most of the money should be spent.
As Jez has touched upon recently, pretty soon regulated linear PSUs will be banned by the regs, so SMPS is the future, but ultimately, it is still a compromise, so for me that's where the best vintage equipment, which has been maxed out in that area, will always have an advantage.
I spent just over £2k on PSU modifications/re-clocking circuits, from Audiocom, to further max out an already overspecced PSU arrangement in the Sonys, which made an enormous difference to how they performed, so I *know* just how significant and influential PSU arrangements are in digital equipment.
Just so you know the cost of the Sonys (as I don't think I've mentioned it to you before), I paid just under £2k for them second hand, and so with the Audoicom mods, you're looking at just over £4k's worth of digital front end. It's not just some old tat I bought cheaply on ebay and have claimed as an unjustified 'giant-killer'. Trust me, it fully earns that title, as anyone who's heard it will confirm.
No problem, it's your current benchmark. I totally get that, and it's impressed you, so you're right to rave about it!
Many reasons, but mostly cost. Quite simply, if the Sonys I've got were made today, they'd probably cost more to produce than the DAVE! The DAS-R1 DAC alone retailed for £1500, in 1989. How much would that equate to in today's money?
Aside from that, these things were built as 'cost no object' projects by huge companies like Sony, 'flexing their muscles' and showing the world just how good CD could sound. To build something similar today would be prohibitively expensive, particularly as Philips TDA 1541s are costly to implement optimally.
Also, as you've mentioned, the market just isn't there now for high-end CDPs, so when it comes to the X-777ES, almost no-one's building players now with proper CD-only transport mechs (such as the VRDS NEO I linked to earlier), and simply using cheap-as-chips (but grossly inferior) plastic DVD ROMs.
Therefore, as I said, it all comes down to cost and the fact that virtually no-one today would buy what it would take to produce a 'cost no object' CDP, in the way of the best ones from the heyday of CD, and when the major Jap players were building their very impressive 'statement' products, all based on optimising solid engineering principles, not on cost, convenience, miniaturisation, or creating the latest 'technology fad', to brainwash buyers into believing its the best, as is so much hi-fi equipment that's produced nowadays.
Marco.