What if you could geta great sounding 2 channel analog output CD/SACD/DVD/3D-Blue Ray player for less than $394 delivered? Not possible!?! Well, someone sent me one of these Sonys, saying it sounds pretty darn nice stock and could I make it better. I took the project on as a lark....as they say. But sometimes these tiny things can produce stellar results. Well, color me laughing with dis-belief. The Sony with a $250 mod sounds 95% as good as my all out Oppo 83SE here. Simply incredible! You can get the stock machine delivered for $129. I immediately did the things I knew would make a noticeable improvement: Removed the already simple output stage and replaced it with a single resistor, removed the toslink connector, cut a hole in the chassis and mounted an IEC inlet so you can use a good power cord (unit comes with hardmounted junk cord), removed some distortion producing parts on the power supply and did a modification to the transport. I turned it on I had to scrape my mouth off the floor. How could this be? This is not right? No Way Jose!....yes, way Jose....way!
One of the main keys to the incredible transparency of this machine is that it was not really designed for analog out in mind (no doubt, they figured that most who buy this thing would be using HDMI into a receiver for sound). There is only a two channel analog output and so they put a cheap Wolfson DAC in there that already puts out 2 volts RMS so they did not even need an output stage....just a few passive parts to further filter and protect the output (only one of which are really needed). This DAC has a charge pump power supply built in so it takes the 3.3 analog power supply and creates a -3.3V supply so it can deliver the 2 volts out. The DAC has a built in output stage, built in single pole filter and built in servo system so no coupling caps are necessary. This DAC is only about one inch from the main decoding chip so there are no digital switching devices nor long traces or other boards the signal has to go through. I solder a 200 ohm resistor directly to the DAC pins and the other end goes directly to the output jacks....cannot get any simpler than this. Naturally, all the other things I do in the mod make a difference and the transport mod was done after I initially listened to it and was already blown away. So, this "cheap" Wolfson DAC turns out to be killer! Built in output stage, no coupling cap needed.....Whodathunk?
The Sony 470/570/770480/580/780 all work with this mod. The S770 and S570 are identical except for the chassis (less than $200 delivered for the 570 ) and the S470 ( $128 delivered!!!! ) is the same except does not have wireless networking (but does have wired networking). The S370 we modded here failed after the mod so may not be compatible with the mod.
8-30-11: I have changed the regulator I am using to a better one and the Sonys are even better now. Just finished a 780 with this latest mod and it sounds marvelous.
5-29-2011: I have been doing more tweaking on the Sony and have taken it even further. I added a separate power supply feed, 3.3V regulator for the DAC, changed diodes in the power suppy and did some more trick mods to the transport. Now it is more dynamic, real, palpable and spacial. The mod is now $250 .
So
$250
for the mod plus player ($129 for S470) + $15 shipping = $394....spectacular value!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got the S780 yesterday.
It sounds great! . . . WAY more refined, detailed, spacious and dimensional than the stock unit . . . Thank you!!