www.referenceaudiomods.comReference Audio Mods performs High Performance modifications to the ever popular Toshiba SD-3950 and SD-3960 units to take them to a completely different level of sound, embarassing many $600-$2000 costing players!!!
Toshiba SD-3950/3960 players (Our Impressions)-
Talk about a sleeper! This unit retails for $129, and can be found on-line or at Best Buy for around $69. The unit stock sounds as good as any $300-600 I've heard. With these mods, this unit is taken to a very FAR level, embarassing so many other players on the market, it is a complete NO BRAINER and everyone should have one either in their system or as an backup for their main big rig!!! Buy one for a Christmas gift for you friends and family! It is comparable to many $1.5-2K costing players or better when modded!
This unit plays DVD's, CD's, CD-R's, CD-RW's, MP3's, JPEG's. The nice thing is the mods have a good affect on video as well as we focus on the power supply of the unit in our mod package. The end result is sound of a much much more costly and also modified unit. Please take a look at the options as well. Now its time to get that expensive sound for a complete fraction of the cost!
I have compared it to NAD C542, NAD S-500, Cary 308, Arcam FMJ 23, rega jupiter, etc.. and has topped all these in overall resolution/dynamics and clean soundstage!
Don't own a Toshiba SD-3950 or SD-3960, but want to own one modifed?? Buy our complete package with player included and save the hassles of buying and the shipping charge to us! (We only warranty our own work that we do on the unit) FREE RETURN SHIPPING! Lower 48 USA States.
NOTE: Since the Toshiba SD-3950 has been discontinued for some time, we will try our best to get one for you from Ebay or such if you really want that model. Since the 3960 is still current that is the default player that we will purchase for your mod installation if you do not provide us with a unit to modify. Both the 3950/3960 sound similar after mods.
The Performance of these mods is much greater than the posted modifications on Audio Asylum or other sites.
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The Mod package prices and descriptions for work described below.
$250 You send in your 3950/3960 player to RAM East
$325 We provide Fully modified 3960 (about 1 week lead time)
FREE RETURN SHIPPING INCLUDED IN PRICE! Lower 48 states USA Only
Rubycon ZL/ZA capacitors-
We replace an abundance of voltage rail decouple/bypass capacitors in all critical areas with Rubycon ZL/ZA series caps! Very Very Nice improvement! A HUGE change in total sonic tonality and character, the stock caps are very bad! The Rubycon ZA/ZL sound superior to even the very best Blackgates (offering more speed, openness and vividness in the soundstage) and offer more ripple current and less impedance which makes them optimal in this use.
Custom Stealth Ultra Soft Recovery Diode Bridge-
We replace the stock noisy/glary/grainy rectifiers with a handmade Stealth diode bridge, mounted on a custom wood platform. These are superior sounding to the Harris versions and offer Less glare, grain and harshness! Nice sound! Better Video as well! These are wired into the circuit with Audio Consulting Silver Wire.
Exotic Jensen 4-pole Electrolytic cap in power supply-
We install an Exotic Jensen 4-pole Electrolytic capacitor in the power supply to replace the stock smoothing cap. This cap has an unique ability of reducing power supply distortion while at the same time remaining very fast and natural. Such a clear and audible improvement delivering more resolution, texture, dynamics, and liveliness. We wire this with Exotic Audio Consulting 24awg silver wire w/natural unbleached cotton tubing. The cap betters the best blackgates and any other cap on the market used in this particular position in the mod. This cap costs more than half the cost of the acutal stock player!!!! This even makes video looks better as well!
Analog Output Stage Mods-
We delete the stock Analog Output stage (all caps, analog filtering, etc) in favor for our own version using Rubycon Capacitors. Incredible results! The R&L audio stock jacks get disconnected and replace with high quality verisons mentioned below.
High Quality Vampire Gold Plated RCA Jacks-
We add a set of High Quality Vampire RCA jacks to the rear of the unit for the 3960 to increase the signal integrity to your RCA cables. The stock cheap versions are made out of cheap stamped metal and plastic and is not good for quality signal transfer.
Chassis Dampening-
We apply damping material sheets to the top lid to further reduce vibrations in the unit. Since this unit is so small, any vibration help is huge. (Look at our Herbies feet upgrade option for this unit for even more vibration isolation)
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EXTRA PERFORMANCE OPTIONS FOR EVEN BETTER SOUND!!
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Audiocom Superclock 3 Reference Clock Upgrade ($295 Free Install!!)-
We add a reference quality jitter reduction circuit called a Superclock 3 , this a major improvement in overall sound! This is like adding Nitrous to a car, huge improvement!! This replaces the master clock and offers much lower jitter rate than the stock cmos type oscillator. Expanded soundstages and accurate instrument definitions for example are the many outcomes of this major mod component. Breathtaking performance is now possible!! Please give the unit well over 300 hours to break-in with this clock. Bonus! WE ARE NOW INCLUDING A PROPRIETARY C37 TWEAK TO THE CLOCK BOARD AND WE MAKE A VERY SPECIAL SILVER WIRE ULTRA LOW IMPEDANCE CABLE FOR HOOKUP. THE RESULTS ARE AMAZING! ESTIMATED COST FOR THESE TWEAKS ARE $75, THEY ARE NOW INCLUDED FREE WITH THIS MOD PACKAGE!!
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Herbies Audio Lab Tenderfeet ($45 Installed)-
Since there is really no stock feet at all, we now add 4 herbies audio labs tenderfeet. There is a difference in sound! Subtle but noticable! These do work! Your choice in black or clear.
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Please check out
www.referenceaudiomods.com for our other mods to many other units you may have. We can also mod the Toshiba SD-4960 as well. Please email or call to inquire.
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Modification Installation Ordering/Address & Questions-
Please contact Doug Jesse of Reference Audio Mods (East Location) by email at referenceaudiomodseast@yahoo.com or by phone at (586)944-5611 anytime.
EDITED: Put up latest info on mod package.
