To mod or not to mod a Sony SCD1

Particularly in relation to Super Clock 4 and power supply upgrade

Super Clock 4 (or any other “super clock”) does not "fix" the nasty PLL clocking of the SCD-1 featuring very high jitter (regardless of the external reference). There is a lot more that need be done, meaning, the entire clocking architecture must be changed/replaced.

Power supply/Black Gate caps upgrade will sure sound "different" but not necessarily "better"; you need to replace the entire analog output stage before doing any “Black Gate upgrade”.

The sad part is that, the SCD-1/SCD-777 is built like a tank and have very nice disc spinning transports, but are flawed by design, IMO! While this is “fixable” to a large extent, it really depends on whether you really want to keep this player or not. If you are listening mostly to CDs, just forget it.

Best,
Alex Peychev

The 5400 is much better than the 777 or scd-1 especially on redbook.

Sure, the inferior 5400 transport gets backed by "superior" Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that is not even Sony! It is Matsushita/Panasonic. Yes, Sony has outsourced this to a larger/cheaper manufacturer (with Burr-Brown DACs)!

While I'd agree that the 5400 is better (stock), it has nowhere near the potential of SCD-1/SCD-777, sorry to say!

IMO, of course, as usual!

Best,
Alex Peychev

Mystang,

Aplhifi Which Bur -Brown Dacs are in the Sony?

The service manual lists DSD1796 which is the same as PCM1796.

In my previous post I've mistaken the 5400 with a DVD player. So here is a correction:

The 5400 is not even Panasonic; it is built around a single MediaTek chip (Sony re-labeled) that is found in every $100-200 DVD player (Pioneer, Sony, Oppo, etc.) It is a single-chip-DVD-player processor with HDMI output. The video capabilities are unused in the 5400 but they have PCM and DSD on the HDMI connector. Apart from the fact that this is the most cost-effective single-chip solution available (so the different internal stages interfere with each other), the entire processor runs from a single 27MHz clock reference (that has nothing to do with audio, BTW). Then, inside, there is an extremely jittery PLL to provide clocks for the audio.

Though Sony did a clever job clocking the DAC directly from the 22M audio reference, they are using programmable PLL (75pS jitter) to "convert" 22M to 27M for the MediaTek chip. This results in enormous jitter level coming with the audio data stream to the DAC.

Oh well, what can I say? Blows my mind reading "Sony 5400 the best under $10,000".

Best,
Alex Peychev