Asking
$750, including shipping (which will be ~$50-75 as this is very heavy)
To all those looking, or who may have seen this on the Bay, I have decided to offer this here instead. I realized that it's more important for me to find a good home for this unit given it's rarity and sound quality, than offer it up to the highest bidder there. This is a no disappointments piece, and should be a lifetime component for someone.
Condition wise it does have some scratches on the top and slight scuffs on the front, 6/10 condition cosmetically per the Audiogon scalem but very attractive once on rack with other gear. Hard to ignore that gleaming golf finish
This rare Japanese version of the DV-09 is exceedingly rare to find in the US and features toslink and coaxial inputs. It serves both as a world class CD player and DAC to use with an external server or digital source. The DAC portion has the highly touted PCM1702 chips, 24/96 capable.
The upgrade modifications performed on this CD player exceeded $1500 in 2010. Performed by Stephen Sank the owner of Talking Dog Transducer Co. who specializes in upgrades of this kind. While technically a DVD player, and a very good one at that, this player has been optimized for high end audio performance. It never been used to play DVDs, only the occasional CD.
There are no known issues other than mentioning the tray opens slower than other similar players, but functions as it should. The laser was replaced so should have many years of life left.
Upgrade details below as described by the modder:
The DV-S9 is the Japan-market version of the well known DV-09, and has the MAJOR advantage of being designed to function not only as a dvd/cd player, but ALSO as a fully 24/96-capable D/A Converter, so can be used with a superior external cd transport, computer interface, or ipod dock, etc. Although the fabulous BurrBrown PCM1702 r2r ladder dac chips used are 20bit, Pioneer built a 4-bit discrete dac circuit for each channel that extends the 1702's dynamic range to full 24bit. So, it's an honestly full 24/96 capable dac system.
Another really unique feature of the DV-S9 is that, used as a dac unit, you can, via video on-screen menu, select between asynchronous & isosynchronous mode(i.e., external versus internal clock), as well as the ability to select between digital filter/processing modes.
This particular DV-S9 has been totally upgraded & rebuilt by Stephen Sank, of Talking Dog Transducer Co., to the maximum extent possible within the parameters of the original design. It is EXTREMELY unlikely that you could find a better sounding dac or player than this unit for anything much under $2000.
The major upgrading/rebuild points:
1)Replaced ALL electrolytic capacitors in ALL power supplies(both for audio AND video/control) with high grade Nichicons, the best & most long-term reliable lytic caps on earth.
2)Where it could even remotely plausibly affect audio performance, the Nichicon lytic caps installed were of MUCH larger capacity than original(from 2x to literally 100x original energy storage capacity) for maximum dynamics & tonal richness.
3)Supplies for audio refit with soft-recovery, ultra-fast rectifier diodes, eliminating a major source of high frequency noise.
4)ALL lytic caps involved in audio performance "bypassed"(i.e., paralleled) with polypropylene and/or polystyrene film capacitors for maximum smoothness & finesse of detail.
5)Analog stage opamps upgraded to Burr-Brown OPA2134PA, the best sounding opamps in existence(OPA627 are far more expensive & allegedly better, but, in fact, impart artificial coloration on the sound to a very large degree).
6)Film caps involved in lowpass filter opamp stages upgraded to film & foil polystyrenes.
7)Output dc blocking caps deleted, being totally unnecessary, so the sound path is 100% dc-coupled from dac chips to output jacks.
8)Input & output RCA jacks upgraded & wired with pure 5n silver solid core wire.
Although this is a Japan market unit, it does NOT require a 120V-to-100V ac power stepdown transformer. ALL components, i.e., the two power transformers & all power supply capacitors, etc., are WELL within safe & comfortable tolerances running directly from normal USA 120VAC power, as this unit has been since it was rebuilt. The only remaining concern about it's Japan market origins are that the rear panel labeling is mostly in Japanese, but the connection points are quite obvious, so not really a problem.
Paypal accepted, Friends/Family preferred or add 3% to cover the fees.
