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Theory vs. Practice

In my experience, it really is possible to improve a stock CDP by orders of magnitude and achieve fanastic results with basic parts substitutions, modifications to power, replacement analog output stage, etc. But it may not be commercially cost-effective, given that some mods are labor intensive and the most important substitutions many even be SMT components, where one finds some of the worst parts bin compromises in commercial players and as well as perhaps a general reluctance among modders to experiment.

Much of this forum is devoted to discussing the theoretical limits of particular DACs, digital filters, upsampling techniques, etc., and posters typically judge CDPs exclusively according to their implementation of these technologies. It's certainly fun to contemplate such matters, but few if any players are anywhere close to the theoretical limits of their underlying technologies, due to build-to-cost engineering and short-cuts in ancillary circuits. Repairing shortcuts is the pro modder's niche, but doubtless even the pro modder is faced with cost/benefit/diminishing returns decisions.

This leaves me where I was in my above post: that you have to aim quite high to get a player up to truly nuanced musical performance.

Dave



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