I wanted to write a quick followup to my comments about the EA S7700 basic mod + Jensen caps (found here:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=12225). After borrowing lonewolf's fully-loaded EA S7700 and hearing improvements, I sent my unit back to EA to get the remaining mods. Received the unit the week before Xmas, and now I've had a chance to listen to it more in-depth, as it has had time to break in. As mentioned previously, I am using this unit to feed my Dodson DA-218 DAC.
I'm just going to cut to the chase; adding the Turbomod and the TurboSuperclock2 was easily a worthwhile upgrade from the basic mod and Jensen caps. Similar to my experience of getting the original mod, the main emphasis of this upgrade has been an overall improvement in clarity...a lifting of haze that I didn't even know existed. Dynamics are improved just to the right degree, while the sound maintains a level of smoothness and liquidity that is musical and engaging. Individual instruments are imaged well, but are also integrated within the soundstage in a very realistic manner. Particularly with vocals, there's just something really really
right about how it sounds. Cymbols have character (not just like white noise, but with timbre and body), bass has texture, and so on....and it all melds together with PRAT and cohesiveness.
As some of you also know, I've been doing an evaluation of a transport kit based on the Philips CD-PRO2M transport mechanism, and that much of the evaluation has been done in comparison to this EA S7700. I'll do an update on the modifications we've made to the kit and how they have improved that unit in the appropriate discussion thread. But I will say that this EA S7700 has fended off a good competitor. Comparing a scope of the digital outs of each reveals that the EA S7700 does have a truer digital out from the perspective of a cleaner square wave. And sound-wise through my Dodson, while the units are similar in terms of detail, soundstage, and imaging, there's no question that the EA S7700 has a smoother, more musical and seductive sound. Of course, the total cost of mods to the S7700 is just over $1300, and S7700's are getting harder and harder to find compared to the $700 for the CD-PRO2M kit...but in terms of performance, the EA S7700 with Turbomod and TurboSuperclock2 continues to be a tremendous performer. Highly recommended.
