[Audio-Omega]

Has anyone ever listened to one ? It's better than my old Sony CE345, it has more bass, better detail and some vocals are warmer. I was expecting more given it costed four times more than CE345. May be I need better interconnects.

 

[sgrossklass]

Typical case of diminishing returns, not unusual at all. For groundbreaking differences best look at tranducers.

 

[Audio-Omega]

Yes it's a case of diminishing return. Sometimes it's better to buy used electronic items.

 

[Kitjunky]

Bought an XA-3000ES myself off ebay. when I first fired it up I have to say it was nothing special. however after modding it with ad8066 opamps / Tentlabs xo & xo psu / blackgate caps / psu mods / removal off muting transistors it is now a stunning player . however over the last few months this has taken a fair bit of time and cost around £300.00 still inc its buying cost that = £570 total and think it will quite easily match any player upto £1500 ish. My choice at the end of the day . its a good chasis to mod.

 

[Audio-Omega]

The modification wasn't cheap huh ? But it's the result that matters.

 

[Kitjunky]

To be honest I think the ad8066's the shottky Diodes & PSU Caps . 4x4700uf & 2 x 2200uf Panasonic FC's and replacement of the 10 47uf decoupling caps on the audio PCB with 1000uF FC's instead of megga bucks blackagtes , and removal off the muting transistors and L/R output caps (zero cost) would achieve 90% of the gain in performance for about £80 quid and a few hours with the soldering iron.

.

My Hobby addiction got the better of me lol

and its still £200 lower than a new scd-xa3000

 

[Audio-Omega]

It's very convenient to use the dial to select track. Too bad Sony doesn't make those cd players anymore.

 

[Kitjunky]

well they do still do the scd-xa1200es scd-xa9000es and the new scd-xa5400es. I bet there's very little difference between the scd-xa1200es and our 3000's. personally id love to get my hands on a 555es

 

[Audio-Omega]

I don't think they are available in Australia, probably not yet. Do you know how much they are ?

 

[Kitjunky]

xa-5400 i think £1500 xa-9000 i think £2k . xa-1200 was selling for £300 a couple of months ago

 

[0sku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitjunky /img/forum/go_quote.gif To be honest I think the ad8066's the shottky Diodes & PSU Caps . 4x4700uf & 2 x 2200uf Panasonic FC's and replacement of the 10 47uf decoupling caps on the audio PCB with 1000uF FC's instead of megga bucks blackagtes , and removal off the muting transistors and L/R output caps (zero cost) would achieve 90% of the gain in performance for about £80 quid and a few hours with the soldering iron. .

I just bought a new SCD-XA3000ES, and planning to mod it too. Is the AD8066 pin compatible with the original OpAmps? Did I read correctly that you replaced 47uf capasitors with 1000uf BG capasitors? Is there a reason to use that much bigger ones? (instead of smaller BG capasitors). If you could give more details of the mod I would be perhaps on safer grounds...