ModWright Sony XA-5400ES Truth Mods

I have never heard the 5400 mods, but I did have a 9100 Platinum Truth Signature mod which I have sold to get my Cary 303T Pro.

I liked it enough and I think Modwright does quality work and never once did the unit hiccup in any way, but the Cary simply blew it out of the water in terms of overall sound quality, even from the unbalanced output.  Also, the rectifier tubes that came with the mod were relatively low-end.

From a valuation perspective, I don't think you'd get much of your money back if you tried to resell it based on my experience.  I purchased mine in 9/10 condition on Agon as well for slightly less than 50% off with all accessories and about 250 hours of total running time from a vinyl lover.

Not sure if this helps any, but that was my experience in short.

When I was in the market for a new digital source, I exchanged a few e-mails with Dan Wright at Modwright, asking him about the Sony 5400.  His response was that the Modwright Transporter to him sounds better than the Modwright Sony 5400.  Probably because he is steering customers toward the Transporter, I couldn't find too much written commentary on the web about the Modwright Sony 5400.  Instead, I read a lot of glowing praise of the mods by Vacuum State Electronics of the Sony 5400 (both professional reviews and owners' impressions).  So if you are considering modding a stock unit, you might want to investigate VSE.  That said, Modwright has an impeccable reputation for customer service and a lot of avid fans over on Audiocircle.

I ultimately decided against investing in the Modwright or VSE Sony 5400 mods.  Mods certainly have their proponents, but I think they make most sense if you already own the stock unit, pretty much like its sound signature, but want to improve on it and never plan on selling.  If you instead pland to have Modwright or VSE perform mods on a new unit, there are more risks involved -- you may not like the sound signature and then may take a big loss when you try to sell it.

FWIW, I ended up buying the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC & Transport, which can be bought for about a third off the $6K sticker price from some on-line retailers.  One dealer who sells a lot of brands, including Marantz and Meridian, told me that I would have to buy the latest Meridian 808 model to obtain a better sounding CD player than the Perfect Wave DAC & Transport.

If you want to spend less, I would probably look at a NuForce-modded Oppo.  It is less expensive than the Modwright or VSE Sony 5400, is highly regarded, and sells more easily in the used market.

I believe I remembered reading that Modwright was planning on introducing a new upgrade that could also separate the DAC section to use for other transports!  

I now have an xa5400es myself but I think I'll stick with my stock unit with warranty for now; more than happy with it so far!

I think the modded 5400ES is a different animal than his previous offerings.  The benefit of be able to use variety of 6SN7s to tune the sound to you liking is pretty impressive and should provide substantial improvement over his previous 5687 tubes design.  I am curious about the unit myself but I prefer to wait it out and just keep enjoying my modwright/kern Sony SCD-777ES player.  My 777ES is the still the best SACD or high resolution playerr I've heard.  The Exemplar 5910 is better in redbook than the modded 777ES however. 

Purk 

The other day, one went on Audiogon for $1900 shipped.  I want one bad but need to resist.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda 

modded unit for sale on a'gon for $2250. considering the mod alone is $2000, seems like a good deal. wish i had seen something like this before i purchased my own XA5400ES (new but stock).

 

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1296213457&/Modwright-Sony-sony-xa-5400-es

Since you have both the Meridian G08 and the Sony XA5400ES, I wonder how do they compare? Thanks

Vcoheda, I have only tried a few high end players, but I can tell you I lived with the stock XA5400 for a while before getting the Modwright mods, and the mods made a huge improvement in sound quality for me.  When my ancient California Audio Labs player was on it's last legs I had the EAR Acute CD player for about a year, and a year ago I had the newest Luxman SACD player.  After these, the stock 5400 didn't impress much, except for it's pricerange.   I remember selling some jazz cds to replace with vinyl after testing them on the stock Sony.  Before shipping out the cds, the Modwright arrived, and suddenly they sounded nearly as good as the LPs.  (i still like vinyl better on all but classical & soundtracks, wish I had gotten a higher end turntable when i had the funds).

 For more money there is probably something better, but the Modwright at retail price is about all I can afford. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyearle 

Vcoheda, I have only tried a few high end players, but I can tell you I lived with the stock XA5400 for a while before getting the Modwright mods, and the mods made a huge improvement in sound quality for me.  When my ancient California Audio Labs player was on it's last legs I had the EAR Acute CD player for about a year, and a year ago I had the newest Luxman SACD player.  After these, the stock 5400 didn't impress much, except for it's pricerange.   I remember selling some jazz cds to replace with vinyl after testing them on the stock Sony.  Before shipping out the cds, the Modwright arrived, and suddenly they sounded nearly as good as the LPs.  (i still like vinyl better on all but classical & soundtracks, wish I had gotten a higher end turntable when i had the funds).

 For more money there is probably something better, but the Modwright at retail price is about all I can afford. 

Thanks for the impression.  How much of an improvement b/w stock and modwright 5400ES?  What's aspect of sound is the most improved?  I'm on the fence about getting my done.
 

in response to your question,  I didn't put a lot of thought into the details of the difference at the time because the improvement was so immediately obvious, and I couldn't go back to the stock unit to A/B.  But it did sound more 3 dimensional, and perhaps I also just like the sound of tubes, when they are not too colored.  If you are one of the people who finds CDs to lack certain desireable qualities that LPs have, you will know what I mean in that those CDs sounded much closer to the vinyl, with the vinyl only marginally better. 

  Also, unlike a lot of people, I wasn't so exited about the sound of the stock unit, though it was very good for the price. 

  I was content with the stock tubes, but for the first time I am trying some different tubes in the unit , and just discovered Modwright now has an upgraded umbilical cord available for their units, which should arrive shortly. 

 wifes here, gotta log off!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyearle 

in response to your question,  I didn't put a lot of thought into the details of the difference at the time because the improvement was so immediately obvious, and I couldn't go back to the stock unit to A/B.  But it did sound more 3 dimensional, and perhaps I also just like the sound of tubes, when they are not too colored.  If you are one of the people who finds CDs to lack certain desireable qualities that LPs have, you will know what I mean in that those CDs sounded much closer to the vinyl, with the vinyl only marginally better. 

  Also, unlike a lot of people, I wasn't so exited about the sound of the stock unit, though it was very good for the price. 

  I was content with the stock tubes, but for the first time I am trying some different tubes in the unit , and just discovered Modwright now has an upgraded umbilical cord available for their units, which should arrive shortly. 

 wifes here, gotta log off!!!

 

 

Thanks.  I'm on the fence which to get b/w the modwright XA5400ES & Oppo BDP-95.  According to Dan, he likes the XA5400ES very slightly better though the two units are in the same level.  He just think that the 5400ES is so very slightly more refined.  I have nothing but excellent feedbacks for Dan and his works, he is such a class act!