While I wish I had a Sony SCD-XA5400ES, a Modwright Sony 9100, or the megabucks Modwright XA5400ES, all I've been able to afford are some used, middle to low-end of the line Sony SACD players, considering what the really good Dentists and Doctors cost as one approaches and goes into "old age". So it seems unlikely I'll ever get a really high-end player. What I've taken is steps to modding the low-end Sony, those that were costing well under $100. on ebay. In the past, I've built SET Amps, and Upgrade kits for older Reel to Reels, and Rebuilds for older Vintage transistor Amps, which made these older sets meet or surpass the sound of new flashy and mega-buck amplifiers costing ten or twenty times as much as the old vintage equipment.
So I gotta say, my first attempt at a reworked SACD player, on just the 2 channel stereo outputs, went so well, even I was amazed at the improvement that a $45.00 per stereo channel (in parts cost) made. Unfortunately, my second attempt to do additional further mods destroyed the cheap Sony unit, since that surface mount stuff was not meant to be fiddled with more than once. Its just way too fragile! So if anyone has a defunct Sony NS-90v that won't read CD's or SACD's anymore, I could sure use the output board to do some more improvement and experiments!
I was also given two Sony NS-500v's that I turned into one working unit, I might have to continue my experiments using that, even though it's a somewhat higher cost unit (I think it was around $300 when new). Just last week, I picked up an NS-775v for just 10 bucks, it is also a low-end universal player, essentially it's the NS-90v but without HDMI capability. Its output board is almost the same, simpler, but very close, so I may try upgrading that even cheaper and older Sony SACD Player unit. The main problem in all of these is that half the circuitry uses SMT instead of thru-hole, and the SMT soldering is a pita! Still, I have a feeling that for about $150. - $175. in parts and labor, I can mod a cheapie Sony to sounding identical to, or even to the point of surpassing a Sony SCD-XA5400ES, a Modwright Sony 9100, or maybe even a Modwright XA5400ES.
My concept would be great as this would allow someone to have a total SACD Player investment (player plus mods) of under $250. to get the overall performance of an SCD-XA5400ES. Remember, the NS-90v / NS-775v / NS-500v all use same Sony Chips to convert the SACD signals, but output IC's that cost only 15 cents in quantity, and the associated input and output caps that only cost Sony 4 cents each. Changing those original parts to $12.00 IC's, and $12.00 input and output caps, and some $6.00 bypass caps, is clearly going to result in being able to surpass the sonics of Sony's XA5400ES; which itself (BTW) happens to use a 60 cent output IC and some of the same 4 cent caps (but they are bypassed by some additional 5 cent caps).
Yes, I know there are major differences between the cheaper Sony's, and the XA5400ES in terms of: jitter, clocking and reclocking, as well as the stability of the transport, and the various isolated and regulated power supplies. But when push comes to shove - that stuff is likely "All Chrome" with little difference in the resulting sound - once the digital stream gets into the DSP-like SACD decoding chips. What that means is, that for all the extra engineering of: expensive better clocks, and reclocking, and extra heavy metal supports in the transport, and the separate regulated power supplies, and additional capacitance, and so on, those things have no effect on the resulting sound, while the final input and output stage caps, and IC gain stages do. It's a nasty little secret that basically, Sony deliberately dumbs down the output stages on ALL of the cheaper sets (both to save money) and so they won't sound identical to the SCD-XA5400ES, which is also why the cheaper Sony's sound so totally pathetic on Redbook CD's! But in truth, they can sound the same, or even superior to the SCD-XA5400ES.
So if someone can send me a good working board for the Sony NS-90v it will help me work on this concept over the summer, and it will be much appreciated.
-Steven L. Bender
