I discovered a Modwright Sony 999ES player while going to audition an Audio Aero Capitole. The Sony was splendid with voices and a dud with Beethoven's "Eroica." But it was using a poor stock power cord. Anyway, poor PC and all, it was the sweetest and smoothest of all players except for the Audio Aero and Electrocompaniet lines, which were actually too smooth for me. The Modwright Sony was thrilling on operatic voices--Fleming, Callejas, Villazon--beautiful up the scale and great micro-dynamics all the way. No noticeable rolloff, but instead a kind of blooming of the voices in the high frequencies. The smooth players rounded them off too much. I called Dan Wright, the modifier, who told me the reason may be because the unit has Bybee filters installed in the analog section. I couldn't quite figure that out, as it should lower noise floor, but the voices? I guess it also dampens high-frequency distortion. Wright was surprised, though, that I liked the Sony better than his modded Denon 3910 as the Sony is thought by most to be more "forward" than the Denon, which he feels can be said to be slightly more neutral. I found my auditioning to prove the opposite, but perhaps the Modwright Denon unit I heard previously was "tuned" to play more rock and roll in terms of its companion components (Antique Sound Labs monoblocks, Modwright SWL preamp). For me, with my music, the Modwright Sony 999ES has a much sweeter and thrilling sound.
The Modwright Sony, by the way, has 2 TungSol output tubes, very cheap to replace.
For romantic opera and Renaissance choral music, the Modwright Sony is one of the two the best players I have auditioned (14 different redbook and modified universal players, with the APL Denon 3910 being excellent as well). I hope to improve its lack of dynamics on orchestral pieces by trying various powercords--Shunyata Diamondback, Acoustic Zen Tsunami, PS Audio Plus.
