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Sony SACD Owners: Anyone Use a DAC for Redbook?

I recently purchased an XA-777ES, and although the redbook play is "nice", I feel the unit would be unbelievable with a decent DAC added. I got a bit spoiled with my old Cary 306. The Sony performs well, but the Cary was added "sweet air" to many recordings.
My dealer told me that the addition of a DAC to the Sony SCD-1 and 777 models was a fairly common practice.
I'd be very curious to hear opinions of those DAC-ing the Sonys.

Thanks,
CB
cbucki

Showing 2 responses by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
I would suggest having the player itself modified. You'll save a cable and a lot of other additional circuitry. Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
Ken: There are a lot of reputable "professional tweakers" out there that are working on these units. My advice is to talk to those that come highly recommended to you and see who you feel most comfortable with. Bare in mind that you can spend as much as you want to when modifying gear, so i would find out exactly what will be done and how much it costs before shipping anything out.

Having said that, i'd like to recommend checking out Ric Schultz at Electronic Visionary Systems. While he used to build his own DAC's ( Millennium 1, 1A, 1B and the upsampling Millennium 2's ), stepped attenuators and modify tons of various gear, he has dropped everything and is strictly working on performing mods to Sony SACD players.

Once you get to know Ric, you'll find that he can be brutally honest. At times, he hurts his own business by talking customers out of spending money with him !!! He is VERY "tweaky" and always looking for the next best thing. As such, his points of view can change from time to time as he has a new revelation / uncovers hidden wealth within various designs / component combinations. Even if you don't end up using Ric to modify your unit, i would encourage you to at least take a look at his website and communicate with him. I can tell you right now that if i was going to have someone modify a Sony SACD unit, he is the one that i would be sending my money to. Then again, that is a personal choice and, as mentioned, you need to work with someone that YOU feel comfortable with. Sean
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