modding the beresford, why bother?

[steve dixon]

ok ok, i know it'll cause a row but.......

why bother with new op amps, and all those tweaky little mods for the beresford?

is it not ok as it is, for the price?

and if not, why not save all the money you would have spent tweaking it and get 'better', benchmark, weiss etc?

you know you can't polish a turd, make a silk purse from a sow's ear etc

and before you say it, yes i know the word better is subjective.

i'm thinking cat, pidgeons here but not for the sake of it, i think its a valid point. we know you'll never get back the money you invested in all those tweaks, so whats the point, just enjoy it for what it is and when you've saved up, sell it and move on, or if your happy with it invest in something else, new speakers, amp, more tunes?

just thinking out loud thats all.

steve

[Techno Commander]

and if not, why not save all the money you would have spent tweaking it and get 'better', benchmark, weiss etc?

Probably because getting anything better would cost significantly more then spending 50 or 60 quid on upgrades.

[colinB]

Its fun maybe ?

[MartinT]

Because the DACs are basically a very sound design which lend themselves to upgrading to achieve a quality far in excess of their base price. Rather like the Technics SL-1210, actually.

And also, as Colin says, it's fun!

[Alex_UK]

...and the Passive Mod need not cost very much, (around a tenner if you don't go silly on caps) and if you don't need headphones (and are happy with the loss of gain) is a very worthwhile improvement, in lots of people's experience. And yes, it is fun!

[StanleyB]

ok ok, i know it'll cause a row but.......

why bother with new op amps, and all those tweaky little mods for the beresford?

is it not ok as it is, for the price?

and if not, why not save all the money you would have spent tweaking it and get 'better', benchmark, weiss etc?
Even if you fit all the upgrades I doubt it will cost more than £150. Compare that to the price of a Benchmark or Weiss ;).

Additionally, a mod like the dirt cheap passive mod can put other DACs costing many £Ks to shame.

Which other DAC on the market can match that sort of cheap modding potential?

[Gazjam]

Steve...
why not?

[daveyboy]

As someone who scoffs at most of the notions of improving hi fi through various wires, stands (lol) and so on, I can definitely say that it was well worth modding my 7510 Beresford. The difference is really prominent, so much more kick and opened sound stage.

So this coming from a cynic....well it says it all

[UV101]

Gobsmacked!!!!

Here's a thought........

An identical DAC chip can be implemented in poor way in a cheap player or, it can be implemented in a great way in a more expensive player. Will they sound the same because they use the same chip? Answer clearly is no.

So what's the difference? Well its the components that surround the DAC itself. Specifically the power supplies, local decoupling and the way supply lines are separated from each other and treated. The gain and buffer stages on the output will also be different in terms of quality of components used etc.

If you can buy a DAC for less than £200, spend some time and a small amount of money changing components in the PSU's and output stage for "better" sounding parts and end up with something that sounds like it should have cost 5 or 6 times the price............

I really dont see the logic in not performing modifications........unless you have more money than sense of course!

And its fun!!!

[DSJR]

The internal bits don't cost a huge amount, but bling casework does, to make something a mugs eyeful.

Stan's DACs seem to be great value for money as-is and because the basics appear to be done well, then modding, or fitting better specced components in more critical areas, isn't such a bad idea. Recent updates such as the Gator show where the genuine universal improvements can really be made - and all for £30. Any of the "Top End" manufacturers would charge a couple of hundred at least for such a mod, but I suspect they'd dress it up more so they could charge a grand instead.



By the way, I'm told the £500 Rega DAC is very good, sounding better than the Saturn (around £875 IIRC) player if not quite as good as their Isis valve jobbie at lottery winners money. Bearing in mind the Rega is a retail item, the Gatorised Caiman should be put up against this one I reckon.