[Solitary1]

I personally don't think enough is being made of the reliability of this unit. I've had 2, currently have none. They break, rather easily if you ask me. I sure as heck wouldn't put $300 of mods into it.

 

[music_man]

judging by other players i have had in this price range it should not last long. that is why i have two more for parts since i invested in the mods.

but, at $39 how many could you buy to have let's say 5 years of service?
since stock it sounds as good as almost any $600 redbook player. it's video quality does suck.

as for the mods, i think i stated in this thread what i did. beyond that i cannot really point out step for step. if you are familiar with electronics it should be obvious what needs to be done. just look at my list of what i did and obtain the parts, replace them in the stock locations. i wouldn't go build a new clock board that is getting carried away.

if you search google there are some sites with pictures of toshiba mods i think. it is the same idea but of course different layout. don't do this if you don't understand this stuff. you will destroy the unit and possibly hurt yourself. any of these cheap machines will beneift from better power supplys and clocks.

the reason those mods will make these machines compete with $1000+ units is because nowdays all the machines under 2 grand use crummy transports. the difference is in the electronics which is easily upgraded.

music_man

 

[afobisme]

you guys haven't mentioned that this player handles divx! the very reason why i got it... i like to watch tv shows on my tv after they come out

 

[music_man]

there is a newer model that even plays ultra divx also for $49. but that one makes a pretty crummy redbook transport.


honestly ive been thinking about getting a $600 slim player to replace this on my nightstand but i can't make myself do it. all the $600 players arent even as good as the(modded) philips. however i am thinking about really getting that shanling "spaceship". i don't even care how it sounds. it is small and i have never seen something with that much eye candy! as a matter of fact i think i'll get it today lol. i won't put it in the bedroom anyhow. i think the bathroom(ok, i am a serious nerd).

music_man.

 

[replytoken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlarn Anyone with advice b/t these 2 good deals???

The Sony only has optical out. My conversations with folks at TRL indicate that the transports are reasonably well constructed. I have had my unit for 8 months now, and it works fine.

 

[music_man]

optical out? did you mean in? the philips has optical and coaxial in which is really rare on a player this cheap nowdays.

where did they say the transports hold up? all i hear is these $50 machines durability is measured in "months".

edit: indeed you did mean optical out. but i cannot see how a changer of that price or really a changer of any price holds up for long.

music_man

 

[replytoken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by music_man optical out? did you mean in? the philips has optical and coaxial in which is really rare on a player this cheap nowdays. where did they say the transports hold up? all i hear is these $50 machines durability is measured in "months". edit: indeed you did mean optical out. but i cannot see how a changer of that price or really a changer of any price holds up for long. music_man

I cannot speak about the Philips unit, so my comments are specific to the Sony. TRL has modified several hundred of these units, as well as other Sony rigs. Paul at TRL feels the construction of this unit's transport is acceptable. I believe it is identical to the transport in its upscale sibling, the C2000-ES, and this unit carries a 5 year warranty. Now, having said that, there have been some posts on AudioAsylum about 595's having problems. But, I have not seen many posts of this nature.

 

[skyline889]

Music man, I don't know what you're smoking but your player is not the best transport under $1500, not by a long shot. For the $350 you invested in that heap of plastic which'll break in a few months, you can buy a used Theta Data II CD/LD transport that'll blow that budget player out of the water. And for $1500... don't even start. It's a great deal for the money, but you need to stop advertising that it's the best transport for under $2k

.

 

[Solitary1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 Music man, I don't know what you're smoking but your player is not the best transport under $1500, not by a long shot. For the $350 you invested in that heap of plastic which'll break in a few months, you can buy a used Theta Data II CD/LD transport that'll blow that budget player out of the water. And for $1500... don't even start. It's a great deal for the money, but you need to stop advertising that it's the best transport for under $2k .

I second this man.

 

[chadbang]

This is the greatest thread in months...

 

[music_man]

ok, you guys are right about a few things. i went to buy the shanling spaceship and the guy i know at the store demonstrated something to me.

the $600 machines have just ok electronics and very mediocre transports and pickups. the philips electronics are pure junk(i guess that is why i replaced them) much worse than the $600 units. what is intresting is that the transport and pickup in the philips is very similar to the ones found in $600 units. the $600 units have some modifications to the transport like damping.
what these machines at this price point do is correct the crummy performance of the transport and pickup through the use of electronics. we were inside 5 different machines(he asked of me not to say which ones on here). this is why the philips can compete with these machines when a dac is used and only when a dac is used. which is no wonder. you just took a $50 machine and put it on a $500-$1,000 dac. same basic crummy transport.
good transports are very expensive. so at the $600 point the electronics are coming into the picture before the transport.


here is were i was wrong. the $2,000 machines and up have seriously better transports and better electronics to boot. if you use a dac the philips can perform like a $600 machine(depending on which one i guess). it cannot perform like a $2,000 machine this was proven to me today through the use of test equipment. i am sorry, i got carried away.


now for something very intresting. like i said i went in to buy the shanling. i didn't get it though. before i ever saw todays post by skyline889(not joking)
my buddy shows me a theta data III with dead video(who cares?) for $100!
bought it. now this is a freaking cd player! it went out to the car on a pallet jack lol. sorry about my nightstand. so my friend says if you want a real cd player and don't have over $2,000+ to spend just forget the $600 ones and the $50 ones, get yourself something 13-20 years old. now why are there all these posts here that old transports suck. he also told me if you do have to buy a new $600 player get a sony es or pioneer elite dvd player. they might not look as fancy but inside they pull rank on these players made in china and made to make you think they were made elsewhere. no insult to china though the shanling rocks. he also demonstrated that a sony es looks very similar inside to an arcam! there is just a lot more to these machines than the other $600 ones. of course the arcam proved to be better on the test equipment.

then he went to the price no object category(esoteric), intrestingly the guts look a lot like the theta(use your imagination since the thetas tray is a foot long)! for $100 yup.


btw, i must have been smoking something this morning when i mentioned about an optical in on a player,duh. actually i was just really tired.

music_man

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 Music man, I don't know what you're smoking but your player is not the best transport under $1500, not by a long shot. For the $350 you invested in that heap of plastic which'll break in a few months, you can buy a used Theta Data II CD/LD transport that'll blow that budget player out of the water.

So how would you compare th difference between the Theta Data II and the Philips - you keep making these assertions of what "will be superior" to the philips - have you ever made these comparisons yourself?

 

[music_man]

i honestly have not directly compared the philips a/b with $1,500+ players. i was going by memory. i did get carried away. the $1,500+ price point is where the quality starts really creeping in.

i am very disapointed with what is to be found in $600 players these days. they have better electronics. to the tune of $20 more worth than the $50 players. many have the same quality(even same exact) transports as the $50 players. some at least in house improved the transports a little with rubber damping or such. so my budy looks up at me and says "what do you think is the most important part of these things?". i replied "it must be the pickup, you need to get good information into the electronics in the first place, right?" he says "exactly, watson!".

the theta sounds a lot better than the two stock philips' i still have. it still sounds better than the modded one too. you guys were right about that. i do not agree with you on todays $600 players. if you have $600 to spend buy used! the fact that the theta(stamped 1993) is still chugging along says a lot about it. will the philips be working in six months, i'll let you guys know but i doubt it from what i have read. really i wasted my time and money modding the philips in retrospect. i bought the theta for $100 and it is better and probably will last another 13 years or so. as i said, for $1,500(well really more like $2,000) the new players are the quality of the old ones. i don't like to look into a machine and see the bottom metal, three boards, a $4 toroidal(oh, such a big deal they make of this), and a 100% plastic sony transport. what i really don't like is to open it and see "made in china" when "designed and engineered in england" is silk screened on the case. again. i like china. it is these companies that make china look bad. why do they feel they need to hide that? shanling let's you know right up front, and has nothing to be ashamed of. from what i see, if you only have $600 and must have a new player go with the big box brands(sony es,pioneer elite,marantz,denon). the so callled audiophile $600 players are nothing of the sort imho.

music_man

 

[music_man]

i have been finding all the pictures of "guts" that i can. it seems that maybe the $600 china players like cambridge,nad,music hall have that fancy schmancy $4 toroidal and a detachable power cord(so you can go get a cord the price of the player to plug into your cruddy home wiring). the sony es,pioneer elite,onkyo integra,marantz,denon... universal players look a lot more "busy" inside but if you know what you are looking at there is just a whole lot more more money of parts that went into these machines. they should last longer and sound better. i don't care that they also play dvd's.

it is not the the philips is so good, it is indeed that if you do not stick with the big names for your $600 machine it is so bad. even if it does have a few big shiny parts(a few parts total). notice the same companies $2,000 players look a lot more like a($500) sony es inside(again, if you know what you are looking at). sony,pioneer can afford to do this because they are huge established companies. i am as disatisfied with music hall,nad,cambridge as i was with musical fidelity. i do not like being ripped off. the arguement of they can only afford to put $50 of parts in a $600 player does not apply. at the low end the philips is going to ofer the same sound through different build techniques and the sony,pioneer is going to be a lot better(in a sub $1,000 player). the $2,000 players are better but i still would not buy the ones everyone here likes. maybe at that price i'd get a meridian or arcam. i hate these companies that go out of their way to conceal where it is made and put fancy looking covers on all the internals so you think you got soemthing expensive and actually got $50 of parts! now the philips might have $25 of parts and sells for $50. you see, there is a ratio going on here. that is why the philips is good when it is actually not that good because of all the crud out there to choose from.

i say just buy used. they sure don't make 'em like they used to.

music_man

 

[regal]

Would adding an aftermarket clock be a worthwhile upgrade to this?