[TheChairGuy]

Steve finished the substantial mods to my Sony S7700 transport (Turbomod with Jensen caps) and MSB Gold Link III DAC.

The results on the transport are always very good - Steve has done this a bunch of times.  Many of whom on AudioCircle.

The DAC mod was very successful - reaching Perp Tech levels on side by side comparos. I believe Steve will be annointing the MSB Gold Link III as a TurboMod.  But, maybe not as my configuation is rather odd...192K upsampler in transport, leaving only the simple task of digital to analog conversion in the DAC.  Albeit it at greater cost overall than the Sony/Perp Tech combo & Steve's mods I think...so Perp Tech may win on value.

MSB owners rejoice....Steve hath used me as your guinea piglet.  Also, he substantially upgraded the headphone outs on the Sony to great effect.

Anyhow, the results were apparently stellar and I will be getting it back mid next week.  Details to follow.

Sorry for the early outpouring of glee.  I'm a little pumped and neither my wife, nor 1 month old infant or cat seem to care much. This is what AC is all about, ain't it?...venting, good and bad.

   

[lonewolfny42]

ChairGuy,

Good to hear! Do you know all the details of this mod ? For the past year I've had a stock MSB Data Link III and P1000 Power Base sitting here doing nothing. I was not happy with it in stock form, very plain. So I'll be interested in your comments. Thanks !! [/list:u]

[TheChairGuy]

Wolfy,

Details on the DAC mod...from one of Steve's 16 emails in 10 days with me.  Can you believe that...all or most of his own volition; I tried not to bother the guy - I knew it was in the hands of an expert.  Such great customer service!
 
======================
It took me a lot longer than expected to do the DAC, but it is really smok-in now...

Two of the three large caps screwed to the chassis and soldered to the edge of the board had actually come loose - they
are soldered good now.  This design had a number of flaws, including:

1) lousy power decoupling for the output driver op-amps
2) stupid use of resistors to the op-amps which severely limited bandwidth
3) very long traces on the board for transmitting the analog signals - really creates a lot of sibilance and dielectric
absorption - I replaced these with my perfect crystal silver wire in teflon tubing.
4) poor power delivery to the DAC option board - this has a good harness now and liberal use of Black Gate caps
==================================

It's all fairly meaningless to me...I'm no techie.  Maybe you can make sense of it.  I care only if it sounds pleasant..as indeed it seems.

The mods to the Sony transport are detailed on www.EmpiricalAudio.com.

Wolfy, do you ever sleep...cripes man, the property taxes on LI keeping you up all night?  

[lonewolfny42]

"Do you ever sleep?".....you know your the second person to ask me that...sometimes I do, a couple of hours. And only when I'm very tired . I'm usually to busy to sleep! I don't worry about the Prop. Taxes, I know they will just keep going up and up and up !! SUCKS !!

Thanks for the info....your mod was finished real quick...so turn it up so I can listen !![/list:u]

[lonewolfny42]

ChairGuy,

Did I wake you ?...After your Link breaks in, get together with another EA Turbo P-3A owner and compare the two DAC's. Those comments would be very interesting too !! Thanks !! [/list:u]

[TheChairGuy]

ChairGuy,

Did I wake you ?...After your Link breaks in, get together with another EA Turbo P-3A owner and compare the two DAC's. Those comments would be very interesting too !! Thanks !! [/list:u]

Wolfy,

You bet I'll post impressions.  I got a very different setup tho...certainly not likely to be duplicated out there by many.  The transport has a 192K upsampler in it, the Gold Link III is hooked up by a cryo'ed silver Revelation Audio cable with RJ45 to XLR connectors into the MSB 192K network.

Kana813, I took your old Sony to the penultimate level now.

I now have $4000 worth of front end in a system that cost about $9000.00 total.  Weird, but I've always found the Brits to be more sensible in the way they apportion their audio money.  More quid (or dollars to most of us) at the front, less thru the amplification stages and on into the best speakers you can afford and fit in your decor.  That's pretty much been my guideline all along in this mad game.  

I think having the 192K upsampler made things worse in the unmodded Sony as a lot of jitter was present at higher resolution.  It actually sounded better when I used the standard digital outs from the Sony (using a LAT International Digital cable) to the DAC running at 96K.  Lower resolution masked the jitter problem.

Now however, with the modded Sony transport, Steve apparently fixed the jitter problem with it and it runs flawlessly into the now modded DAC.  A new clock was not needed (saving me $600 or so in the process) because the upsampling was done in the transport which Steve cured with his foofy magic dust.

You're in good hands with Empirical Audio I think if modding the MSB is of high priority.

As far as time zones...having spent the better 95% of my life on the East Coast, most of my friends are still there and I do business in all time zones in US now...I am more acutely aware of time zone difference than most.  I'm a friggin' zombie without 7 hours sleep...don't know how you do it.

[TheChairGuy]

Lonewolf,

I should add that Steve made the mods to the MSB RJ45 192K outs, not the standard digital outs...so the P3a will not sound so great thru MY Sony transport.  

This is what MSB does to the Link III transports for $595.00.....from www.msbtech.com.

=============

The MSB Network 192K Upsampler upgrade installs in most digital products and provides a 192K 24 bit output via the MSB Network all the time. The cost for this upgrade is $595. It can be installed in a CD player, DVD player, DVD-Audio player or a DVD player with built-in Dolby and DTS decoding. In this case, all 6 channels can be upsampled and output on the same single MSB Network output. This out-put can be hooked up to the Nelson or GOLD LINK III, the Platinum LINK, or the LINK III with the Network option.



The Upgrade Process

The MSB upgrade has no effect on any function of the unit to be upgraded. The 192k output always works regardless of how the digital output is configured. For example, if a DVD player is set to output DTS digital during a movie, then the digital output can be attached to a DTS decoder. At the same time, a down-mixed stereo version of the soundtrack will be output on the 192k output. The 192k output always plays the same content as the analog audio outputs.

[lonewolfny42]

ChairGuy, Thanks for your comments concerning the MSB !! Sounds like a very good mod....enjoy it !!