Chazzbo: This dealer is not a brick and mortar where I could simply take my player to his store and A/B against some of his players. I met him online through Audiogon. When I listed my equipment, his opinion of Modwrights is that they lack transparency. It was the first time I'd seen that description of their house sound. This dealer said, and I quote, "I am not a big fan of the Modwright tubed stage.. it looses too much info/transparency, its punchy and somewhat musical, but blurs the info somewhat and slows it down... some like that.. I feel it sounds additive.. almost like an old loudness control..." This dealer has been promoting that the Cary 306 SACD would be more to my liking based on my sonic preferences, but I'm sticking with the 999ES.
Sonics of tube modifications from Modwright
I have the Sony Modwright 999ES with Signature Truth mods. As you know it is highly regarded for redbook performance. And I think my player is very good. But, a dealer who I have done business with characterizes the sound of this player and others from Modwright as lacking transparency. I don't agree. I always thought of transparency as hearing into the music or like hearing through to the music. I've not noticed a lack of transparency in my 999ES, but I've only been in this hobby a few years and possibly I'm missing something.(Stereophile defines transparency below.) Whether Sony-platforms, Denon platforms etc., do you enjoy the transparency of your modded modwright player?
From the Stereophiles glossary:
"transparency, transparent 1) A quality of sound reproduction that gives the impression of listening through the system to the original sounds, rather than to a pair of loudspeakers. 2) Freedom from veiling, texturing, or any other quality which tends to obscure the signal. A quality of crystalline clarity."
From the Stereophiles glossary:
"transparency, transparent 1) A quality of sound reproduction that gives the impression of listening through the system to the original sounds, rather than to a pair of loudspeakers. 2) Freedom from veiling, texturing, or any other quality which tends to obscure the signal. A quality of crystalline clarity."