Sb3 Well I'll be darned

Charles Calkins · « **on:** 15 Feb 2006, 01:12 am »

I'm sure that all of you have heard of Alex(Genius)Pechev. He might be one of the top modders to Cd players around.

I heard of Alex several years ago when he was doing mods to the Pioneer 563a player. I bought one and for the $600.00 it cost me it was a killer CDplayer. Nothing in that price range could compete with it.

Alex had an open house in Dublin featuring the Pioneer and his modded Philips SACD 1000. To my old ears the Philips was a better sounding player than the Pioneer. Not by a whole bunch but I could hear a pleasant difference.

So for $3050.00 including buying a used one on Audiogon and having Alex do his magic on it I had one. It has always been a very fine sounding CD player and has never(Thanks to Alex) given me any problems.

Now comes along computer audio. Come on this is all B.S.!!!! Computer audio can not compete with a fully modded (By Alex) CD player!

Right?
Wrong. Computer audio does compete with modded CD players.
I got my SB3 last week and thanks to Rashiki it has been up and running since Friday.

Today I decided to do an An(Alex Pechev modded Philips SACD 1000 CD player) versus B an SB3 computer system.
Much to my surprise I could not tell if there were any difference in playback. It seems that I hear the squeeze box having a wee bit more detail in the very top end. Something like those little bells and cymbials or whatever they are in the backround are sounding better.

I've got $415.00 tied up in the squeeze box including a wireless router and a 25' parch cable. This by far the best $415.00 investment on audio gear I have ever spent.

I've got a DAC-60 on order from GR Research and I'm hoping that the DAC will kick the squeeze box up another notch.

Just thought I'd like to give all of you my input on the squeeze box.

Great piece of audio gear!!!

Cheers
Charlie

randytsuch · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 01:59 am »

Hi Charlie,
Glad you got your SB up and running, and your network problems ironed out. It is really nice once it is working.

Is your SB stock? I am somewhat surprised a stock sb3 can complete with a Alex modded SACD1000. I bought a RWA modded sb3, so never heard it stock.

I am using the sb3 as a transport, connected to a Audiosector NOS dac, as I like the AS dac better than the modded sb3 output. It is close though. So if the dac-60 is good, I would expect it to improve your sb3.

Randy

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 02:07 am »

Randy:
Yes my SB3 is stock. And in my humble opinon it is a killer for the price.
With mods and outboard DAC's who knows what level it can reach. Keep you posted. Time to get back to music. Through the squeeze box of course.

Cheers
Charlie

Jon L · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 02:20 am »

How latest is your APL SACD1000? Does it have the latest AKM DAC chips and 88.2kHz upsampling board?

A lot of what you're hearing may be due to advantages of hard-drive music, but I'd be curious how the APL player would sound fed by computer, i.e. via Alex's optional digital-input board.

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 02:40 am »

Jon L:
My SACD 1000 has the crystal DAC's with it's own built in volume control. In other words you can hook it up directly to your amp. I'm sure you knew that already. I heard the upsampling in Alex's Denon 3910 And I couldn't tell any difference. The AKM DAC's would have cost another $500.00 And I came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth spending that much on the SACD 1000. I heard Alex's almost fully modded Denon 3910 and for the $5000.00 price tag compared to my SACD 1000 I just couldn't see spending that much money on something that was just a little bit better than my SACD 1000. There comes that time in the audio gear price that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better performance.

Cheers
Charlie

Carlman · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 02:41 am »

Quote from: Charles Calkins

I've got $415.00 tied up in the squeeze box including a wireless router and a 25' parch cable. This by far the best $415.00 investment on audio gear I have ever spent. ...

Don't forget the cost of the PC and hard drives to hold the music. I think the SB3 is great; half the reason is because it's using the PC as a transport...

PC Audio sounds more like analog than any cd player I've ever heard.. Plus, the possiblities are endless once you've got a music server up and running.

The SB3 works great for expanding your collection to other systems in your house also... I found it fairly easy to connect 2 and have them both play very nicely together.

-C

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 02:46 am »

carlman:
Okay,Okay,Okay. Darn!! The computer cost me $500 at Fry's. Are you happy with me now? Forgiveness?

Cheers
Charlie

crooner · « **Reply #7 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 06:34 am »

I also ordered a DAC-60 last week. Should arrive tomorrow.
Even with the analog outputs my unmodded SB3 beats my Denon DVD-2910 universal player and original Rega Planet!

Quote from: Charles Calkins

I'm sure that all of you have heard of Alex(Genius)Pechev. He might be one of the top modders to Cd players around.

I heard of Alex several years ago when he was doing mods to the Pioneer 563a player. I bought one and for the $600.00 it cost me it was a killer CDplayer. Nothing in that price range could compete with it.

Alex had an open house in Dublin featuring the Pioneer and his modded Philips SACD 1000. To my old ears the Philips was a better sounding player than the Pioneer. Not by a whole bunc ...

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #8 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 07:15 am »

Congrats Charlie on your success with the SB....enjoy the music !!! Now you'll have time for a few more of these........

Chris[/list:u]

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #9 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 10:12 am »

Crooner:
Did you order your DAC-60 with the Sonic craft mod?
Keep us posted on the sound.

Cheers
Charlie

ctviggen · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 12:17 pm »

I don't think you should count the cost of the PC, unless you use the PC solely for audio. I've had a PC now since there were 286s. All of my financial information, letters, you name it, are done on PC. For me, the cost of the SB was the cost of SB (and interconnects, which I had).

sl_1800 · « **Reply #11 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 01:30 pm »

I agree, I already had a pc and a laptop and a wireless router. So my only expense was the SB3 and in the near future a larger hard drive, which will be around a hundred dollars. I have been letting my SB3 burn in for a few days, now I need to play some test tones so I can match the outputs of it vs my cd player and then see how the two sound.

Even if the SB3 was not as good it's a keeper for it's eas of use and fun.

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #12 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 03:19 pm »

sl_1800
Test tones??
I wouldn't know how to do that. When I did my A vresus B test I used a Radio Shack sound pressure level meter and tried to get each player putting out about 90db on the meter.

I like the idea of test tones first. Let us know the results.

Cheers
Charlie

crooner · « **Reply #13 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 09:18 pm »

Charlie:
I order it unmodded.
I plan to replace the coupling caps with SoniCaps and bypasses as suggested by Danny of GR Research.
I am also going to roll some NOS tubes in it.
I'll keep you guys posted!

Best,
crooner

Quote from: Charles Calkins

Crooner:
Did you order your DAC-60 with the Sonic craft mod?
Keep us posted on the sound.

Cheers
Charlie

ctviggen · « **Reply #14 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 09:32 pm »

Oops! I forgot about having to buy the 300gb hard drives. That was an extra expense.

F-100 · « **Reply #15 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 09:35 pm »

Charlie,
What is the rest of your system consist?

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #16 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 10:46 pm »

F-100:
Adcom GFT-555 tuner. I've had it for 20 years
AVA T7ECR preamp. The latest one in the old chassis.
APLHIFI Sacd 1000. Alex insists it not be called a Philps.
CIAudio D-200 monoblock amps.
Von Schweikert's VR-4 Gen III HSE loudspeakers.
Two Belkin PF-40 line conditioners.

Nothing to write about in the cable and speaker wire catagory. Just a bunch of mixed stuff I bought over the years.

Cheers
Charlie

F-100 · « **Reply #17 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 10:54 pm »

Thanks Charlies.. I can't wait for my modded SB3 from RWA to get here soon.

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #18 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 11:19 pm »

F-100:
I was thinking about having RWA or Boulder do mods on mine but I decided to go with an outboard DAC. If I don't like what I hear with an outboard DAC I can always try something else. With a modded SB3 what you got is what you have to live with. RWA and Boulder I'm sure do outstanding mods and if I hadn't decided to go outboard DAC I wouldn't hesitate to have either of them mod my SB3.

Cheers
Charlie

Horizons · « **Reply #19 on:** 15 Feb 2006, 11:36 pm »

For the money, the SB3 with an external DAC absolutely slaughters a standalone CD player or transport + DAC IMHO. When you factor in the bonus of accessing your entire music collection and streaming feeds, the SB3 should be Stereophiles product of the year yet they haven't even reviewed it.

PC audio is revolutionary and I can't imagine buying a high priced CD player in the future. The only drawback that I can see is if CD player sales tank and effect actual CD production in favor of more compressed downloaded music. I still like a physical CD that I can rip. Until (if ever?) we are able to download uncompressed audio, there will always be audiophiles who purchase CDs.