markl
Hangin' with the monkeys.
Member of the Trade: Lawton Audio
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
- Posts
- 9,130
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- 54
Intro
After what felt like years of agonizing anticipation, I finally received my heavily modified Sony XA9000ES from Reference Audio Mods. Service was good, but the unit was slightly delayed by about a week over the initial estimate, though I understand these things happen. My unit was with RAM for 2 and a half weeks total, still very good turnaround time. Douglas Jesse was always courteous and very responsive to my (many) inquiries.
You may remember I recently auditioned the Krell SACD Standard CD player (see here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ghlight=krell). The Krell retails for $4K and was my first real “official” high-end source I’d had in my own rig for evaluation as opposed to hearing it in a dealer showroom. I liked much of what it did, but it was lacking quite a lot of what I already got through my sacdmods modified Sony 555ES (monumental review here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52002 ). Overall, I preferred the humble upgraded Sony over the $4K Krell.
This comparison proved to me that the basic value proposition of modified players is sound: namely, that at a fraction of the price for a true high-end player, you can simply drop in better parts to a mass-market machine and achieve similar sonic results. You get all the advantages of the economies of scale that a major audio manufacturer can bring to bear on creating your base piece of mid-fi gear. In general, what largely enables the niche-market “high-end” companies to produce better-sounding machines (at a premium), is their use of much higher-quality components in their players, where the mass-market manufacturer has to cut costs in order to meet a cheaper price-point for the average Joe. When you choose to modify, you take a base player produced at a much cheaper cost than a small high-end maker could ever hope to match, and upgrade as much of its components as possible, and voila—instant champagne sound on a beer budget!
My previous Sony 555ES retailed at $1600 when new, I got one on close-out for about $700. The full sacdmods package for the player was $650. So, for my investment of $1350, I got a player that out-performed a $4K unit. Not a bad deal at all, I’d say.
In the past, I’ve owned another modified player, a Sony 333ES (predecessor to the 555ES) that had some modest mods done to it by the popular Modwright. Dan’s mods were a nice improvement, but the player was not nearly as good as Matthew Anker’s much more heavily-modified 555ES. So, after selling the Krell, I decided the best path for me would be to start with an even higher-end Sony base model and have still greater mods done to it than I had done to the 555ES.
So I chose Sony’s most recent top of the line SACD player, the XA9000ES ($3K retail), which I purchased used for $1300. Granted, this is hardly a “mid-fi” machine, yet it’s still shy of the real “high-end”, and there is still plenty of room for improvement over its stock components.
I then had $1395 worth of modifications (still not the full extent of what RAM offers) done to it. Most of the aftermarket mod-ers offer tubed output stages for their major modification work. I decided on RAM because their analog output stage is pure solid state. While I do like much about the tube sound, I simply hate almost all the extra baggage/hassles/anxieties that come with tubes. I also want to insure a more solid sound with good foundation for my R10s, so I’m less trusting of tube’s ability to provide that power and sound. BTW, RAM claims they can modify *any* player, but you may be a guinea pig if yours is the first of its kind. They do extensive mods very similar to those outlined here to the Eastsound player that was all the rage here a while back.
Below are pics of the player’s internals with descriptions of each of the mods.
Pics of the Modified XA9000ES
Here are some candid shots of the mods performed by RAM.
First, here is a pic of the player’s extrenals. It’s one sexy beast of a player, much better built than the Krell. The casework is quite heavy, and the player itself weighs 35 pounds! The FedEx guy struggled with it a bit.
Now let’s open her up and take a macro look at her insides:
Here’s a pro shot of the Audiocom Superclock 3, a special circuit that replaces the cheap stock clock (clock is almost impossible to see in the pics I took). Adding these aftermarket clocks (there are several on the market) is generally thought to be one of the best bang-for-the-buck mods you can do. Adding this mod ($295) greatly reduces jitter, and is said to yield a cleaner, more accurate sound, improving resolution, soundstaging, and ensuring the timing of the bits is as accurate as possible.
This is a pic of the power supply mods ($300). Here is a quote from RAM describing what they did:
Quote:
Finally, the most unusual, and possibly most significant upgrade, an entirely new analog output stage made up of Audio Consulting’s Coupling Transformers ($700) and silver wire. (If you squint, you can see the Superclock 3 hiding behind them.) RAM does this same mod to all players they mod, regardless of price, including CD players that retail at $10K (though they use higher quality transformers for those). I won’t attempt to describe this mod, so here is what RAM says:
Quote:
While I’m a layperson, and probably in no position to judge, the visual quality of the RAM mods aren’t quite up the immaculate and precise level of Anker’s mods to the 555ES, but to be fair, there’s a hell of a lot more room to make it pretty inside the 555ES than the over-crowded XA9000ES.
Day 1 Listening Impressions RAM XA9000ES
Coming soon!
After what felt like years of agonizing anticipation, I finally received my heavily modified Sony XA9000ES from Reference Audio Mods. Service was good, but the unit was slightly delayed by about a week over the initial estimate, though I understand these things happen. My unit was with RAM for 2 and a half weeks total, still very good turnaround time. Douglas Jesse was always courteous and very responsive to my (many) inquiries.
You may remember I recently auditioned the Krell SACD Standard CD player (see here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ghlight=krell). The Krell retails for $4K and was my first real “official” high-end source I’d had in my own rig for evaluation as opposed to hearing it in a dealer showroom. I liked much of what it did, but it was lacking quite a lot of what I already got through my sacdmods modified Sony 555ES (monumental review here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52002 ). Overall, I preferred the humble upgraded Sony over the $4K Krell.
This comparison proved to me that the basic value proposition of modified players is sound: namely, that at a fraction of the price for a true high-end player, you can simply drop in better parts to a mass-market machine and achieve similar sonic results. You get all the advantages of the economies of scale that a major audio manufacturer can bring to bear on creating your base piece of mid-fi gear. In general, what largely enables the niche-market “high-end” companies to produce better-sounding machines (at a premium), is their use of much higher-quality components in their players, where the mass-market manufacturer has to cut costs in order to meet a cheaper price-point for the average Joe. When you choose to modify, you take a base player produced at a much cheaper cost than a small high-end maker could ever hope to match, and upgrade as much of its components as possible, and voila—instant champagne sound on a beer budget!
My previous Sony 555ES retailed at $1600 when new, I got one on close-out for about $700. The full sacdmods package for the player was $650. So, for my investment of $1350, I got a player that out-performed a $4K unit. Not a bad deal at all, I’d say.
In the past, I’ve owned another modified player, a Sony 333ES (predecessor to the 555ES) that had some modest mods done to it by the popular Modwright. Dan’s mods were a nice improvement, but the player was not nearly as good as Matthew Anker’s much more heavily-modified 555ES. So, after selling the Krell, I decided the best path for me would be to start with an even higher-end Sony base model and have still greater mods done to it than I had done to the 555ES.
So I chose Sony’s most recent top of the line SACD player, the XA9000ES ($3K retail), which I purchased used for $1300. Granted, this is hardly a “mid-fi” machine, yet it’s still shy of the real “high-end”, and there is still plenty of room for improvement over its stock components.
I then had $1395 worth of modifications (still not the full extent of what RAM offers) done to it. Most of the aftermarket mod-ers offer tubed output stages for their major modification work. I decided on RAM because their analog output stage is pure solid state. While I do like much about the tube sound, I simply hate almost all the extra baggage/hassles/anxieties that come with tubes. I also want to insure a more solid sound with good foundation for my R10s, so I’m less trusting of tube’s ability to provide that power and sound. BTW, RAM claims they can modify *any* player, but you may be a guinea pig if yours is the first of its kind. They do extensive mods very similar to those outlined here to the Eastsound player that was all the rage here a while back.
Below are pics of the player’s internals with descriptions of each of the mods.
Pics of the Modified XA9000ES
Here are some candid shots of the mods performed by RAM.
First, here is a pic of the player’s extrenals. It’s one sexy beast of a player, much better built than the Krell. The casework is quite heavy, and the player itself weighs 35 pounds! The FedEx guy struggled with it a bit.
Now let’s open her up and take a macro look at her insides:
Here’s a pro shot of the Audiocom Superclock 3, a special circuit that replaces the cheap stock clock (clock is almost impossible to see in the pics I took). Adding these aftermarket clocks (there are several on the market) is generally thought to be one of the best bang-for-the-buck mods you can do. Adding this mod ($295) greatly reduces jitter, and is said to yield a cleaner, more accurate sound, improving resolution, soundstaging, and ensuring the timing of the bits is as accurate as possible.
This is a pic of the power supply mods ($300). Here is a quote from RAM describing what they did:
Quote:
| • Replace stock diodes in the power supply with custom handmade ultra low impedance RAM versions. Improvement: Replacing the stock diodes with our custom RAM versions eliminate the grain and glare of the stock noisy silicon diodes. Since our diode bridges are ultra low impedance and ultra fast, music has now more speed and more dynamics. Our diode bridges are handmade per mod order and take some time to make and install. • Replace stock electrolytic capacitors in power supply circuits with Jensen 4-pole and Rubycon ZA/ZL series capacitors. Improvement: These capacitors are much more open sounding, very neutral and have more speed than any other cap on the market. We have compared Blackgate FK/N, Panasonic FC/FM, Nichican Muse, and Os-cons and they are not in the same league. We replace the stock smoothing caps with an Exotic Jensen 4-pole version which provides increased performance over any conventional 2-pole design which "push" noise, the Jensen blocks noise and decouples away from the circuits. The Jensens are not cheap caps, typically costing about $50 each. These are not plug and play type caps and we HARDWIRE them from our modified diode bridges into the circuit. • Re-wire the AC input with Audio Consulting Silver Wire, Re-engineer the power supply board and eliminate some energy robbing devices and unnecessary stock parts Improvement: This brings more resolution, better defined and deeper bass and more sonic character. This is the final tuning of the supply to make sure the sound is balanced on the output end. |
Finally, the most unusual, and possibly most significant upgrade, an entirely new analog output stage made up of Audio Consulting’s Coupling Transformers ($700) and silver wire. (If you squint, you can see the Superclock 3 hiding behind them.) RAM does this same mod to all players they mod, regardless of price, including CD players that retail at $10K (though they use higher quality transformers for those). I won’t attempt to describe this mod, so here is what RAM says:
Quote:
| • Delete entire Stock analog output stage (many many signal resistors, transistors etc.) DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT! • Replace (and add) an abundant amount of Rubycon ZA series caps for critical voltage rail decoupling • Add Audio Consulting Signal Coupling transformers to eliminate stock stage (these are passive, meaning the noise floor will drop very significantly and no fluxations with the AC mains) • Replace stock RCA's with WBT NextGen Versions (eddy current free) for the best RCA connection possible • Use Audio Consulting silver wire and cotton tubing point to point for all wiring for the output stage wiring. • Note: Since we use signal coupling transformers (passive) they do no induce the noises from power supplys and they isolate and block HF noise from entering back into the DAC chips from other components in the system. There are absolutely NO CAPACITORS or RESISTORS in the signal path in our mods!! The Analog output is wired for both Single Ended and True Balanced Output. Now Music is so much quieter, cleaner, more resolute with no lack of dynamics! You will be stunned! Absolutely positively a whole different world of reference level performance. Much more music, emotion, and drive. |
While I’m a layperson, and probably in no position to judge, the visual quality of the RAM mods aren’t quite up the immaculate and precise level of Anker’s mods to the 555ES, but to be fair, there’s a hell of a lot more room to make it pretty inside the 555ES than the over-crowded XA9000ES.
Day 1 Listening Impressions RAM XA9000ES
Coming soon!
