[00940]

until I went to this small shop today in Belgium. Shop run by a lonely guy, former technician for a few hifi company (Atoll f.e.). My cdp is a really basic philips cd753, in fact, it shares the internals of the marantz cd5000. Nothing to rave about, I got it for 40$ used. Basic sound, a bit boring, not really detailled. Everyone has heard those basic cdp, somwhere in between a pcdp and a real audiophile player.

A modded philips cd723 (aka marantz cd4000) was running as I entered. On a nice system I must confess, based on B&W CDM9 speakers (modded too, how did you guess ?). It stands up to the task,really, and I thought it would be nice to get the same sound, but well, 400$ worth of mods on this one was a bit higher than what I was willing to pay. I let the player to the guy and went drink a few beers (hoogaerden if you wanna know). Two hours later, back to the guy. What, which cdp did he get during lunch time ?? Mine

Seriously, even with a price tag of 500$, it was a steal. Dynamic and impact were amazing, trebble and bass extension incredible. Ok, is the system to thank rather than the cdp ? Back to my cans (hd580). Only one conclusion. The szekeres was nice up to a philips 963 like. A sony cd3000 (yes the guy is not completly ignorant about cans) sounded real nice right of the rca (a little gain had been added). The szekeres didn't add anything to the sony and really not a lot to the senns. Now, I need another amp, cables and so on. It never ends

Right now, i'm listening to the cdp on my small wharfedale, with this cdp and a vintage H&K (an a401, sweet integrated). The combo is far more listenable than the combo i tried when I bought the speakers (including Linn Genki and 963).

I'm an happy guy

PS : for diyers, I must confess the guy didn't say what he did... Changes of opamp, caps and diodes for sure, for the rest, mystery.