Modwright sony xa5400 vs Modwright Oppo 95

I guess I might as well jump in here. I've owned the Modwright/Sony for about a year now. Brand new out of the box, I thought Dan's 5400 sounded absolutely wonderful and I was pretty sure it would be a keeper.

After about 100 hours of break-in, I swapped out the stock tubes for NOS and added Dan's "Truth Umbilical"(who comes up with these names?). No big surprise, improvements across the board. Now a year later, I've purchased a new Oppo 95 intending to send it to Dan for the same mods.

The modded Oppo will be used in an AV system but I'm looking forward to doing a side by side comparison with my modded Sony which resides in my main system.

Like the Sony, the Oppo offers balanced/XLR outputs making for an ideal connection to my fully balanced Atma-Sphere MP-1 Mk3 preamp and MA-1 Mk3 mono's.

My good buddy, known as JWM on the 'Gon, also bought a Modwright/Sony 5400 same time I did and was impressed enough to jump on Dan's modded Oppo 95, used at this year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest; he beat me to it!

We both attended the show and had ample opportunity to hear an unmodded Oppo, the tube modded Oppo, and the tube modded 5400.

The unmodded Oppo 95, which I've been living with for a few weeks now, is a really nice sounding player and given the choice, I'd take it over an unmodified Sony any day. Every Sony ES player I've heard(more than a few) come off sounding rather boring.

On the other hand, the Modwright/Sony is a totally different animal. Dan pretty much guts it, adds his own components and separate tube power supply and you end up with a player that competes with those selling in the $10-15k price range; No Lie!

The tube modded Oppo 95, as a reviewer might say, "is cut from the same cloth" as the modded Sony. There's definitely a family resemblance and it definitely kills the stock unit.

Compared to the stock unit, the modded Oppo is more open, spacious, transparent, dynamic, extended at the frequency extremes, and more power and weight to the music. It also sounds smoother and more refined yet it's very revealing of little details and nuances. This may sound like blather but there are many posts here on the 'Gon and also on A-Asylum making similar observations about Modwright's modified players.

As for the differences between the modified Sony and modified Oppo 95, everyone in Dan's room agreed, they sounded very similar but the Oppo sounded noticeably fuller and warmer. In an already warm tube system, this might be too much of a good thing. If you're running solid state, it might be the way to go.

To my ears, the Sony sounded a bit cleaner and more revealing. As mentioned, I've been living with one for almost a year and I'd say it leans towards the warmer side of neutral and sounds very smooth, refined, and with a natural ease to the music. Not at all like digital.

On the other hand, JWM, who's been living with both modified players(Sony 5400 & Oppo 95), has been thinking he might slightly prefer the Oppo over the Sony. He's running about $50k worth of VAC tube gear and I'd say he prefers a somewhat warmer presentation than I do.

Well, it's getting late and I've blathered on long enough. Hope some of this is helpful to somebody.

Later

Yo, JWM and I spent a few hours at his house last night going back and forth between both modified players and we continue to agree on most points.

The Sony is a wee bit more revealing and I think it excels at leading edge transients. I hear more air on top and more decay. To my ears, it's more exciting to listen to and I think more believable. The Oppo is somewhat forgiving of mediocre discs but I think you get more truth with the Sony. It never offends and to my ears, is superior to all digital I've heard previously, including the $15k Playback Design that JWM unloaded recently.

That said, the modified Oppo doesn't fall all that short of the Sony in terms of resolution and it really does sound very open, airy and extended. As I mentioned previously, it might be preferable with solid state gear.

Bottom line for me, I like 'em both a lot and could easily live with either one. Fortunately, like JWM, I don't have to choose. After hearing both players side by side, first at RMAF and again last night at JWM's, I'm ready to pull the trigger(is that phrase politically correct?) on the Oppo for my AV system.

The Oppo definitely gives a warmer, fuller presentation. Beyond that, they are more alike than different.

Hey Charles, hope you had a great holiday!

Charlesdad, JWM and I all agree, either player will make you happy. It's a matter of personal taste.

As JWM mentioned, we listened to redbook, SACD, XRCD and some new FIM stuff. All sounded very good to exceptional. Bad cd's still sound bad but they're more tolerable if you like the music.

I own a few SACD's but bought my Modwright 5400 specifically for redbook. Everything else is gravy.

Fan, what fan? I've never noticed it. My soon to be modified Oppo resides in a 16' x 13' video/exercise room with a 7' ceiling. The only fan noise I barely hear(if there's no music or dialogue) comes from my 54" Panasonic plasma.

JWM and I did some tube rolling with his MW Oppo 95 a few days ago and at the end of the night, we agreed, the clear winner was the 1940s Tungsol black glass. Unfortunately, with prices reaching $500 pair, they're a bit of a luxury for most people.

Our next favorite was another oldie, the Sylvania VT-231, which gave up a little of the magic, but was still a great sounding tube.

After that and in order of preference, we enjoyed some brown base Sylvania 5692's, (probably made by RCA), some vintage Raytheon GT's, Sylvania Chrome top GTB's and finally, early RCA GT's.

Frankly, I'd take almost any NOS over the current offerings, mostly Chinese, though I do hear good things about the "Black Treasure" stuff. I've heard them in a few systems at CES but never in any A/B comparisons with NOS.

Anonymoustao is absolutely right about Dave_b's comments. Every time he buys a new player, regardless of what it is, it's always better than anything he's owned previously. I think he's on his 4th player since I bought my Modwright 5400 a year ago.

Knghifi, I've been using Black Treasure KT-88's in my Cary SLI-80 F1 all-triode and love them. I own four pieces of equipment that use 6SN7's and would like to hear the BT equivalent but they're not all that cheap and I already have a huge stash of some of the best 6SN7s ever made.

Sstalwar, don't waste your money on the MAC umbilical. JWM bought one thinking it might be better than Modwright's; it wasn't!

You can waste lots of money on power cords but I've always found replacing a cheap stock cord(usually 18ga.) with a 14 ga. Belden works better than most. Ditto on fuses. A lot of manufacturers recommend staying with factory fuses.

Don't know about the ByBee but both JWM and I added the Audio Magic and the improvements were subtle; mostly lower noise floor. I think the Audio Magic and ByBee together would be redundant.

I think JWM would agree with me, I tend to like the softer puck type feet under my player rather than hard cones or balls/cups. Duh, YMMV.

Hey Jeff(JWM), you too Charles, let's be clear on this, you both kinda like the new MW/Oppo 105? Your comments were sorta vague.