Just opened the XA777 for the 1st time

JoshK · « **on:** 1 May 2004, 03:09 am »

I just cracked the lid on my Sony SCD-XA777ES for the first time. I have seen the insides of many other players, but not the XA777. I owned the AudioNote CD3.1x for a while, this makes the AN look like a $150 DVD player. I have never seen so many capacitors in any player in my life, granted it is a multichannel player but holy cow! There is little room to do anything with. I didn't expect that.

I cracked the lid to add some dynamat but there is hardly any place to put it because every inch is used inside this player.

JoshK · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 May 2004, 05:05 am »

Some pictures....

bubba966 · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 May 2004, 06:19 am »

Josh, I had a similar problem when I cracked my DV-AX10 open to install some Dynamat or ERS. Except there's less room in the AX10 than there is in the XA777.

I need to see if I can steal someones camera somtime...

Looks like you've got room for a bit 'o Dynamat. Are you going to attempt to put any in there, or just leave it alone?

JoshK · « **Reply #3 on:** 1 May 2004, 08:12 pm »

Yeah somehow the picture didn't quite give the same impression that I got when I first looked inside. But still there was a bit of room. I did put a lot of dynamat inside. Mostly small pieces carefully placed in areas where it made sense to put it.

I put dynamat all over the transport frame and even a little on the bottom panel under the transport (which wasn't so easy to do). I took the sides off and dynamatted those spots as well. The thing that I thought was really interesting was that it looks as though Sony had done some of this already. There are areas where it looks like they put some conductive material on the lid and panels attached with conductive compound. I haven't seen this done before on a stock unit.

If you look closely at where the three boards with all the caps are, you can see that they tapped copper plates on the bottom side of the boards between the boards to shield the boards from one another. There are other copper plates around other areas as well. Just like you said about your AX10.

bubba966 · « **Reply #4 on:** 1 May 2004, 08:38 pm »

So didja take any post-Dynamat pics?

It is kinda hard to see any of the copper plates in the pics.

So, is it any better? Was there any mechanical noise before that was quieted by the Dynamat?

JoshK · « **Reply #5 on:** 1 May 2004, 09:01 pm »

I didn't take any post dynamat pics because it would be really hard to see it from the picture. It is all in nooks and crannies. I've never noticed mechanical noise with this player before, so I would have to say no to that one.

Improvements in sound? Well it is hard to say because it took so long to dynamat it that it isn't a fair A/B. It seems like it has sharpened focus a bit but that could be a pyschological effect, more listening is needed to confirm.

JoshK · « **Reply #6 on:** 1 May 2004, 09:19 pm »

Imaging is more focused, which is hard to believe since it was pretty damn focused before, but the images were a bit freer from the center when images were outside the center. I guess that is what most would describe as soundstage. I would describe it more as the layers of the imaging were more precisely defined. No noticeable improvements to depth though, which is always a bit of a problem with my setup, but then I know that is my setup.

The second major improvement is with bass detail. The bass was increasingly more taught. On Diana Krall S'wonderful, the upright's bass was eerily defined inside my chest and the string picking was really well heard.

Next up, my Spectron is going to get some dynamat! I am just a bit worried with heat so I think I will place it in patch mill style.

bubba966 · « **Reply #7 on:** 1 May 2004, 09:19 pm »

Are you going to do anything else to it? ERS, NextGen RCA jacks, cap replacement, rewiring, etc?

bubba966 · « **Reply #8 on:** 1 May 2004, 09:23 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

Next up, my Spectron is going to get some dynamat! I am just a bit worried with heat so I think I will place it in patch mill style.

I wouldn't worry too much about the heat. The Dynamat can take it, and I loaded up a 'puter or two with a whole hell of a lot of Dynamat and it didn't raise the temps any.

Might raise the temps if you covered up any vent holes though...

JoshK · « **Reply #9 on:** 1 May 2004, 09:36 pm »

Quote from: bubba966

Are you going to do anything else to it? ERS, NextGen RCA jacks, cap replacement, rewiring, etc?

To the Spectron, all of the above. I even got a pair of Cardas Patended binding post that I intend to put in it. I plan to do a lot of tweaking and modding the Spectron. It is such a great amp and so synergistic with the rest of my system that I really have no wants to replace it, just want to inch that last little bit out of it by tweaking. It is most sensitive to vibration, so a little care is needed with vibration treatment and isolation.

JoshK · « **Reply #10 on:** 1 May 2004, 11:57 pm »

I took some more pictures inside, trying to get the pictures with dynamat. I will point you here instead of posting the pictures in this thread.

One other point, I just out of curiousity took my multimeter to the dynamat and confirmed it is conductive. So it should have a shielding effect I would guess.

bubba966 · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 May 2004, 12:13 am »

Quote from: JoshK

One other point, I just out of curiousity took my multimeter to the dynamat and confirmed it is conductive. So it should have a shielding effect I would guess.

The top layer is 4 mil thick aluminum. So I'd imagine it does shield things a slight bit. Couldn't guess how much though.

Looks like you went a little conservative with the Dynamat. Didn't feel like really packing it full?

Anyways, my question about other improvements was regarding the Sony, not your Spectron...

And what are those strips on the lid? Are those the ones you were refering to that were conductive? If so, it must be to close a circuit or ground something. I've seen something similar in a few different LDP's I've opened up.

JoshK · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 May 2004, 01:11 am »

I plan to mod the Sony a bit but first I am going to practice more by modding my tuner first. I also am going to build a couple of phono's to compare against my current one. I think this is really the only component that could probably use improving to my satisfaction.

I was thinking of adding a super clock to the Sony, superior RCA jacks such as the WBT nextgen. Some cap changes but I need to read up a bit so I identify the correct ones to mod. Of course the powersupply caps are easily identifiable so those could be changed to Blackgates. The two channel audio board says 'audio board' so the caps on that could be upgraded.

I just finished dynamatting the Spectron amp. Freaking huge bass now. Improved from upper midbass down and not just quantity but also the detail in the midbass is very improved. So much so that I think I need to click the mids and highs up a notch on my RM40s. Also I noticed that the turn on and off has a lot less sound coming from the Speakers. Not sure why that would change but it did. Maybe just a fluke thing.