modifiying your dvd player?

[drogulus]

Take a look at these:

www.sacdmods.com

www.tweakaudio.com

www.referenceaudiomods.com



What these mods amount to is putting expensive parts in cheap players. You would have to be careful about which parts and of course some players are better candidates than others. Modders know this, of course, and have their favorites.

If I could find a modder near me, I'd check it out, but I don't want to ship anything. As far as the doubters go, their arguments are valid, provided there is no appreciable difference in sound quality between high end players and the bottom tier. From time to time modded players are reviewed in mags, like here.

 

[mtrycrafts]

see.. the thing here is.. i'm never really against modding, as long as the person know what they're doing. companies use some cheap parts in order to cut costs. it's never really that a company doesn't know how to make a good design, but it's a business, and often many parts get cheaped out on. still with disc players though.. don't know what good upgrading the power supply would do. There is a thing with some car audio units where it needs it's own dedicated hot wire straight from the battery or else the system has a disc tracking problem. But home audio... really shouldn't be an issue at all.

What specific parts you think will make audibel differences in a component? No speculationg allowed
DBT listeing data would be great.

 

[mtrycrafts]

different model players use different circuit boards, dac's, and chipsets which can make a substantial difference, .

Then this would show up in the spec sheet and of sufficiently different that it makes it audible different. However,

"Topological Analysis of Consumer Audio Electronics: Another Approach to Show that MOdern Audio Electronics are Acoustically Transparent", Rich, David and Aczel, Peter, 99 AES Convention, 1995, Print #4053.


I seriously doubt it as the data will not support it

 

[mtrycrafts]

Take a look at these:

www.sacdmods.com

www.tweakaudio.com

www.referenceaudiomods.com



What these mods amount to is putting expensive parts in cheap players. You would have to be careful about which parts and of course some players are better candidates than others. Modders know this, of course, and have their favorites.

If I could find a modder near me, I'd check it out, but I don't want to ship anything. As far as the doubters go, their arguments are valid, provided there is no appreciable difference in sound quality between high end players and the bottom tier. From time to time modded players are reviewed in mags, like here.

The only problem with this line of thinking is that the modding will be measurably different in the end. However, just because is measures differently in the end from the original component, is it audible? Since

"Topological Analysis of Consumer Audio Electronics: Another Approach to Show that MOdern Audio Electronics are Acoustically Transparent", Rich, David and Aczel, Peter, 99 AES Convention, 1995, Print #4053.

they should be already transparent, how will you hear lower measurements when they are below thresholds already???

But, if there is anything published showing audibly different under DBT listening, I am sure many woyld be interested in that new knowledge

 

[guess88]

so mtry... you saying there's no audible difference between say an upper end Denon or McIntosh cd player vs a cheap Craig cd player? After all,

"Topological Analysis of Consumer Audio Electronics: Another Approach to Show that MOdern Audio Electronics are Acoustically Transparent", Rich, David and Aczel, Peter, 99 AES Convention, 1995, Print #4053."

right?



I mean seriously... are we all blowing our load here? I know there's a lot of marketing gimmicks in audio, but certain parts can help make a good audible difference between components. I have more experience in car audio, but damn if you tell me that an alpine, pioneer, or eclipse deck sounds the same. There's definately an audible difference, and that's with DBT testing. **** i've had all those decks, i can just tell you from years of experience.

Or is there something more you're trying to tell us? Please go a little bit further in explanation than just naming an article and putting up some cheers with it. If you read the article worth it's weight, you'd be able to shed some light for us.

 

[drogulus]

mtrycrafts,


The point of your posts is that everything that measures the same, sounds the same. You seem to have some trouble with the idea that people make judgements about sound quality without rushing off to the lab. But is this how the manufacturers decide about sound quality? They just take measurements?

I don't see the modders doing anything all that different from the original designers. In principle, it's the same. In fact, if designers didn't have to worry about hitting the price points, they'd be doing many of the same things.

I don't really think people should waste their time trying to "hear measurements", whatever that means. This forum owes its existence to the idea that armed with the best available information, people can and do make good decisions about audio and video gear. Amazingly, they do it with their eyes and ears!

 

[soniceuphoria]

I think the dvd modding topic reminds me of the good old dipute of plain old copper speaker wire vs. solid silver and gold plated speaker wire. Is there really much of an audible difference or is your mind just telling you that you just paid $500 for the cables and they better make an improvement. I have always gone by the principal that if something is not broken then don't fix it, and in the end even if there was a slight sonic improvement would it really be worth the $100's or $1000's you would pay for these such upgrades. And just remember no matter how good your player is the sound is as only as good as the recording it's coming from and with more and more bad recordings being put out than good I see no point to these mods anytime soon. That's my
$0.02 Happy listening.
Greg

 

[guess88]

oh i agree with you there. If i was gonna mod a cdplayer.. it'd have to be free, and that's if i were to do it at all. I'd rather just buy a better one. But it seems like mtry's saying there's no difference between even the lower models and higher end ones. That i don't agree with.

 

[soniceuphoria]

I agree with you, you almost always get what you pay for in the relm of electronics. And I am like you, I'd rather go buy a new player than to send the old one off to get modded just to not be happy with it in the end and going and buying a new one anyways.
Greg

 

[drogulus]

And just remember no matter how good your player is the sound is as only as good as the recording it's coming from and with more and more bad recordings being put out than good I see no point to these mods anytime soon. That's my
$0.02 Happy listening.
Greg

Soniceuphoria,

Well, you have a point. If you listen to crappy recordings, hey, why waste the money?

But why stop there? Why listen to music at all, why not just measure it?

For those of us who like to listen to good recordings of music, it's a good idea to take sound quality, as well as measurements, into consideration. I'll take all the information I can get!

That subjective impressions are always the result of bias is just as extreme an idea as that they never are. Some people just want to live in a simplified world.

 

[guess88]

i don't think sonic wanted to bring it out that far and meant it like that. More of a comment lamenting how poorly recorded many songs are nowadays. Kinda like grieving about how many movies are poorly written today. All of us here have somewhat of a concern for sound quality or they wouldn't be here at all.

 

[soniceuphoria]

you hit the nail right on the head I couldn't have said it better.
Greg

 

[soniceuphoria]

droglous, if you think that I dont care for sound quality you are sorely mistaken. On my system (check it out) The Evictor even the smallest of flaws in the best recordings are painfully apparent in my system and if you had a sonically revealing system you would know what I am talking about. And if you had read the thread more thoroughly before posting your response we were disscusing the fact that just because a reading changes slightly doesn't mean that the difference is audible (or noticable) and if the inprovements were worth the time effort and money invested into them. Before you can know it all you have to learn it all. Remember not to walk blindly into traffic.
Greg

 

[se7en]

im not endorsing modding at all but its interesting. that company underwoodhifi only modds certain models like denon, music hall, certain pioneers etc... whatever. i was just seening if anyone else modded their players.

 

[drogulus]

soniceuphoria,

You're absolutely right, I apologize for coming across so harshly.

You wouldn't be here if you didn't care.

About these mods, it's not something I would do unless I really understood what was going on. I'll probably just get the best player in my price range.

 

[soniceuphoria]

Drogulus, thanks for seeing it from my point of view. I fully agree with you that it is much easier to get a new player then to try to mod the old one only to be dissapointed. In the end the specs of any piece of equipment do matter but it is the sound that really counts in the long run. I appreciate everyones input to the forum and I do understand that sometimes it can be frustrating and hard to express your opinons without comming across harshly, I did not take any comments personally so dont sweat it. Happy listening.
Greg

"Opinons are like asses, everyone has one and ocasionally it stinks."

 

[guess88]

fucck that, i fart perfume!!!!

 

[soniceuphoria]

I'm shure that after a White Castle sack of 10 and a sixer of bud you wouldnt be saying that. LOL
Greg

 

[guess88]

I'm shure that after a White Castle sack of 10 and a sixer of bud you wouldnt be saying that. LOL
Greg

LOL.. after all that, it'd probably give me more reason to say it!!!

 

[mtrycrafts]

so mtry... you saying there's no audible difference between say an upper end Denon or McIntosh cd player vs a cheap Craig cd player? After all,

"Topological Analysis of Consumer Audio Electronics: Another Approach to Show that MOdern Audio Electronics are Acoustically Transparent", Rich, David and Aczel, Peter, 99 AES Convention, 1995, Print #4053."

right?



I mean seriously... are we all blowing our load here? I know there's a lot of marketing gimmicks in audio, but certain parts can help make a good audible difference between components. I have more experience in car audio, but damn if you tell me that an alpine, pioneer, or eclipse deck sounds the same. There's definately an audible difference, and that's with DBT testing. **** i've had all those decks, i can just tell you from years of experience.

Or is there something more you're trying to tell us? Please go a little bit further in explanation than just naming an article and putting up some cheers with it. If you read the article worth it's weight, you'd be able to shed some light for us.

I am not familiar with the Craig CD player. BUT, a few years ago T$$, The $ensible $ound did a DBT between a $80 RCA multi disc palyer agains CD players costing $1000s and found no audible differences with a number of listeners, not just the author of the report. So, until one compares under DBT listing protocol, one will never know if there is an audible difference, or not

By the way, how did you do your DBT listeing? How many correct guesses did you achieve?