How good are the Sony 9000es mods.?

I own an unmod'ed s9000es and find it to be a nice unit that does much. I had spoken with Stan Warren of SuperMods on several ocassions. He went into much detail explaining why his $250 mod will provide a roughly 25% increase in sonic performance.

A friend of a friend who is an audio reviewer had his mod'ed by Stan and he claimed the increase was more like 40%. I don't know who this reviewer is but that's what I heard.

I was about to send my 9000es to Stan when I got laid off last September. I've since purchased a Sony SCD-1 which is a very nice unit. Clearly a step up in every category when compared to the 9000es. I still believe the 9000es is a very nice unit and plan on keeping it for movies.

Based on the build quality of the 9000es, on what I've heard about the mods, and who's doing the mod (Stan Warren is the co-founder of PS Audio), I wouldn't hesitate to have him modify the unit. Not to mention it's only $250.

While this doesn't bear directly on your question, I had Dan Wright of ModWright do his level 2 standalone and transport mods put in a SuperClock and ByBee filters on my Pioneer 38A (which is in about the same price range) and the improvement was immense. I would say the improvement upgrading from the 525 I had previously to the unmodified Pioneer 38A was about a 10% improvement, while Dan's mods were an 100% improvement. You might want to look for feedback on the ModWright forum at www.HarmonicDiscord.com. He does a lot of work on Sonys.

Greg

Try and get a hold of a member who uses the moniker scuba he has a 9000es that is modded and should definatly be broke in by now-he also has another SACD player he was going to compare it to(the 9000es that is).

I also have a 9000es un-modded and have no plans of getting it upgraded I just use it for DVD purposes and don't think I could justify an expense for merely video ;) For the money I think it is a great unit and with mods it is suppose to be MUCH better on every level. Like Stehno said; I am using a new capitole 32-192 Mk 2 now for cd playback and its not close to being in the same league as the 9000es(but there is a bit of a price difference so it can be justified!)
~Tim

I've had mods done by Modwright and the impovements are astounding. After the mods and break-in I had an opportunity to compare the sound with my friends' stock unit.

No contest, the 9000 has a lot of potential, go for it.

Check out www.modwright.com

Chelillingworth

Which level mod did you get? I was looking at the web site and they show 3 levels plus bybee filters,tubed outputs,satalite navagation(in case you loose the remote).
I owned one breifly,but returned it to pick up the EAD theatervisionP. Of all the DVD players I looked at, the 9000 came in second in that catagory.
Tim

Well I just picked up a new 9000es for $700.00. Time to shop around for the mod. company to do the work.
Tim

Good luck, there are a number of folks out there who are very well thought of and can do a good job!

The mod's DEFINITELY WORK. I have heard Richard Kern (audiomod.com) and Dan Wright (modwright.com) modifified scd-1 units and cannot recommend them enough. Both guys have great reputations.

I just bought a used richard kern modified audiocom scd-1. I still have my original scd-1 and a/b compare them. It's like the difference between a $500 Cd player and a $2000 CD player. I can't believe how much better it is. Much lower noise floor, truer instrument timbres, and the soundstage seems twice as wide. I don't think I've heard a lower noise floor. If I had known the level of improvement I would have had it done long ago.

A few weeks ago Dan Wright brought his Modwright XA777ES (the one from CES) with the tubed output stage to my house and it's unbelievable too. It also sounded much better than my stock scd-1. Had the glorious tube warmth to go with SACD's awesome resolution. It's also a great redbook player - better than the stock SCD-1.

I would guess that having a 9000 would probably be an even more dramatic improvement since it has lower component quality than the scd-1.

I just heard back from audiomod and they are not yet upgrading the 9000es.
Tim

I am thinking of getting my 9000 modded too. What level of mod gives the most bang for the buck? Are the Audiocom super regulators worth it? Anybody with a Modwright level 2 or 3 out there? Did you get the Bybee's? Are they any good? Does the 9000 need a clock upgrade? Who makes it? Can you put the Superclock into the 9000? Or just the 777? ETC.

Twl
Have you cheked out the EVS wabsite?
tweakaudio.com Do some reading. I talked with Rick today,very nice guy.
Tim

First of all, Stan lost my player. After my player was 2 weeks late from its planned arrival time, and when I called stan to check on it, and guess what? Ol' Stan forgot who I was altogether. I had called him 3 times a week before sometimes talking for an hour or more before he so called shipped my player. After he remember my name, he said that he had to so called "go though some of his tags to find the problem then he would called me back, When Stan called me back, he informed me that he sent my player to a guy in Washington. Damm!? Humm? makes you wonder doesn't it. When I got it back, it wouldn't read a disk properly. Sometimes it would, and sometimes it would not. What I'm try to say is, ol' Stan screwed up my brand-new unit, and the warranty is viod now because he opened it and tampered with it. Stan tried to blame it on UPS, that was a lye. I had it looked at by a pro tech, and he confirmed that Ol Stan screwed it up. When I can get it to play, it really not that great. His mod really didn't make that much difference. It's not worth the risk. If I had to do it over, I would choose Robert at www.audiomod.com . A friend of mine got one of his mods, and it's really good. Plus, he'll stand behind his work. www.modwright.com is very good too. At least these guys have an email address and a website.