Sony Playstation SCPH-1001 one of the best cd players around? - Page 5

why didn't you say that earlier! I could have put my 1001 on ebay and use the $ to buy three 55xx, I will be modding them anyway

oh well, it is too late now, the PSU board have already been cleared and DAC stage modified. On the other hand, if this one doesn't meet my expectation after the mod, I won't be wondering "if that was a 1001, maybe it will be better".

I hope you also caught johnny's important caveat, that with modification, some of the 100x's "magic" goes away, which has also been my experience with my 1001. The 1001 definitely sounded better unmodded in my system.

ouch....

the good news is my modded little PSone-101 is sounding acceptably good now, so it kind of off-sets the sadness....

price alert, the ebay 1001's are once again #$%^ cheap......

Stereophile July 2008 Review: Stereophile: Sony PlayStation 1 CD player

Thought I might give this PS1 idea a go. Go in with low expectations and it's one of the cheapest things we can try in this game, right?

Is the SPCH-100[12] the only one worth trying (w/o modding)? If others are worth looking at (same DAC?) how do you get an output w/o the RCA? Or is this where you have to do some DIY?

TIA.

I have one in my system. Unmodded. Compared it to my Sony SACD player and the 1001 won, although it won't do SACD's

Here is a pic of the system

I've been reading Head-Fi for a while, but this is the first time I've posted... I wanted to comment on the SCPH-1001.

I'm new to the hi-fi headphone world. I don't have a lot of money to spend, having just had a kid, so I have to shoot for budget components. Given this requirement, the Playstation SCPH-1001 has been very good to me. The stereo separation in the SCPH-1001 is much more apparent than my other hardware (Cowon D2), and the sound is very crisp and clear. I amplify it currently with a PA2V2, and I use it with my Grado SR-60.

I have very modest hardware compared to most in these forums, but this budget source "sounds good to my ears". Maybe one of these days I'll be able to upgrade and try it with a fancier amplifier and either a K701 or something higher up the Grado chain.

Peteyglad !!

what do you hook up to your PS1? What amp are your running with it? What connecting cables? I see you have 701s. do you use those with is? how is the sound?

Wow, a few questions Let me answer the best I can.

As for a signal path I have the SCPH-1001 going into a Yaqin tube buffer to a RW Audio headphone amplifier. For interconnects I use discontiued Rockford .5 meter Rockford Fosgate Riot interconnects as seen here.

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...7&locale=en_US

Originally the .5 meter were a $70 cable but they are no longer in production so if you can find them they are pretty cheap on EBay. I use these from the CD player to the tube buffer and from the buffer to the amp. I have very good luck with them although I don't have a lot of experience with igher end cables.

The PS1 has an upgraded power cable as well as the power cable for the buffer and the amp.

The amp is custom built by Robin at RW Audio. His main business is car audio line drivers but he also builds car amplifiers, home amplifiers and headphone amps also. While none of those are on his site he can quote you if you are so inclined. Since mine was a prototype and built for me at cost I can't say how much one will run at this time.

RW Audio

Yes those are K701's and absolutely use and love them with this setup. For me it is very impressive. I really am not good at describing sound so I don't even want to try, suffice to say I am very happy with this "budget" setup. Excluding the headphones I have a total of under $300 invested between the source, tube buffer, amp, power cords & interconnects.

If I have left anything out just give me a shout back.

edit

it baffles me to see statements such as

"the ps1 will not trounce any 6,000.00 player" or any sort of absolute proclamation...as if the person making the statement had some sort of golden ear monopoly.

there are no rules in audio.

there are no absolutes. this is a hobby driven by personal tastes.

one cannot attach quality to price.... it is not possible. every one hears differently. to believe otherwise is to be a fool.

Indeed.

On many occaisions I have seen the results of tests (blind of course) on kit which is vastly different in price - often the mundane kit is not (audibly) different from the stratospheric kit. For instance back in the 1980s a test of a $230 Pioneer receiver vs $12,000 worth of monoblock amps (Masters and Clark), or the Spanish fellows (matrixhifi) who tested a $12000 Oracle CD player against a $200 Pioneer DVD player.

There is a lot of magical thinking about in HiF audio.

the equipment I own is testimony to that fact. Ive been through so many price points of speaker/amp/dac/cable etc, and the equipment I ended up with is all over the map in comparison with other products. some of it is more expensive, some of it is far less, but I chose based on what I hear, and never allowed any foolish influences to affect my decision(like money spent as related to quality, etc).

I agree with both of you. Which is why I am using my PS-1 as a source. Great sound to me and I got it for free which is even better. This is a hobby of discovering and trial & error. This isn't a hobby of "Let's see who is richer" or "My audio system is more money than yours"......