"Kalman Rubinson" wrote in message
...
On 6 Feb 2004 22:18:47 GMT, "Harry Lavo" wrote:

To Chung's original question.

The mod's being done on SACD and DVD-A players generally involve
substituting a clock module, substituting better sounding opamps in the
outpout circuits, and upgrading the output capacitors to BlackGates. The
owners swear by them. I haven't heard them, or a before and after
comparison. Perhaps after my five year SONY warranty runs out I'll
consider
it.

And I think it is many of these that he (and I) have concern about. It
takes knowledge and technical skill (and equipment) to do this
responsibly. Many tweakers simply swap stuff based on reputation,
hearsay or whim and convince themselves that it "sounds better." They
often reach that conclusion without measurements or A/B comparison.

My retort was to his second point about whether anyone could improve
on a responsible manufacturer's design and I contend that they can in
some cases.

I've needed out of warranty repair many times in my 50 years involvement
with this hobby, often the manufacturer is no longer in business (e.g..GAS
Ampzilla) or is no longer concerned with their item (e.g.. Tandberg 10XD).
For someone such as myself who can't even use a soldering iron correctly,
there are but two ways to go, either a skilled technician assuming
schematics are available or the high-end repair outfits. Either way you
don't end up having anything like "original parts" in your equipment. The
ordinary repair engineers scoff at all this high end business and are merely
concerned with performing a repair that holds, not wanting to see your piece
back in their hands during their warranty period. The high-end repair folks
nearly always need to perform "upgrades" sometimes warranted, for either
reliability and/or sound concerns. If the manufacturer is still in business
and handles your item there are always upgrades and superior non-original
parts required and/or available. I've taken all these routes and the
equipment always sounds the *same*, of course A/B comparisons with the
original is not an option. OTOH friends report their equipment sounds
better. Anyone familiar with the popular (even by TAS standards) Van Alstine
mod of the Audio Research SP-3-A1? I did it (sounded no better). Even ARC
until this very day offers mods for this piece and the original electrolytic
capacitors
are no available should they require replacement.
http://www.audioresearch.com/SP3-update.html