Mike - what have you compared the modded Denon against? I'll have to refer to PX website to see what Level 2 mods entail. The one thing that worries me about their mods is the very short warranty period - 90 days. Not a concern at your end?
Tx
Ron
Ron,
They don't actually call it a level 2 mod, my mistake. It's the level 1 mods with the addition of a LC Audio XO3 clock. From what Parts Connexion say none of their mods voids the Denon warranty, so repair (if needed) shouldn't be a problem. I think the 90 days only covers the mods. In my case I'm not worried because I can probably repair the player. Of course I'm really hoping it won't fail for a long time.
I have directly compared it to a Stan Warren modded Philips SACD 1000, a pretty maxed out DI/O, an Exemplar Audio modded Denon 2900. I have a few other more mundane players as well but they aren't even in the same league. I've heard quite a few other quality front ends although not in direct comparisons.
The PC modded Denon has more detail and transparency than any of the above. It also has a very extended but non fatiguing top end. Bass performance is simply amazing. Old recordings keep surprising me with details I've never noticed before and in some instances with low bass that was simply missing.
The Exemplar modded Denon has a more liquid midrange and the tube magic that is very nice. It isn't quite as transparent and detailed as the PC version but it's incredibly smooth. Both are very good and the choice between them boils down to system synergy and personal preference. A good friend owns the Exemplar and in his system it seems to have a better synergy than the PC modded version. In my system the Exemplar is a little too soft and the PC version matches my gear and tastes very well.
The Philips is very smooth but lags behind the Denons in dynamics, bass, detail and top end extension. I was disappointed with the Stan Warren mods. APL is offering some supposedly killer mods for the Philips but I don't have a spare $1,850 for yet another player.
In comparison to the modded ART DI/O the Denon betters it (in my system) in pretty much all areas. On occasion the DI/O can be overly aggressive in the mid/upper midrange and can wear on a person. At least that is my feeling. The Denon has tons of detail but doesn't have the midrange harshness that can occur with the DI/O. My DI/O was essentially the same as the ones modded by Bolder Cables, not identical but nearly so.
The gentleman who owns the Exemplar actually purchased both the Exemplar and the Parts Connextion mods and liked the Exemplar version better. He offered me the PC version for a great price which I could not turn down. A few of the locals listened to both players in his system and I believe all agreed the PC version seemed too dry in the midrange, especially in comparison to the Exemplar. I did a few additional mods to the player that IMO helped flesh out the midrange. I added a large CLC common mode filter before the power supply, rewired the power supply to eliminate some of the push on connectors (not sure how much it helped but since I was wiring in the filter there was no reason not to), removed the output muting transistors and bypassed the output caps. In many cases it's not good to bypass the output caps but the DC offset was quite low at 6mv and I run a tube line stage which doesn't seem to be bothered by a small amount of DC on the input.
The end result is a very good player, at least I think so.
Hmm, I think I've went on way too long.
Hope this helps.
mike
