Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Upgrading a player – a minefield but I’ve stuck gold!!! (long)

Posted by John C. - Aussie (A) on May 17, 2009 at 17:41:06

For years now my mantra has been to “upgrade the clock” to improve the sound from digital sources but now I’m not so sure. Why? Well last week the Esoteric UX-1 LE came back (at great freight expense) from the USA after resuscitation by David Schulte of “The Upgrade Company” (see link below) and David did NOT change the clock!! What he did do apart from using some Black Gate caps is a bit of a mystery but the result is very clear after 100 hours of burn in – the best audio I’ve ever had from a home system.

Before describing the improvements, which are not imaginary or resulting from the “new toy” syndrome, a brief outline of the audio path:

The Gear under Discussion
Estoteric UX-1 LE universal player: L/R analog out -> McIntosh C200 preamp -> Halcro DM68 amps -> Sound Labs full range “Majestic” electrostatic speakers.
For CDs & other 2CH a feedback from the C200 (for added ambience to the music) -> Meridian 861 -> various Plinius & other amps -> a pair of cut down Majestics for the centre channel + other electrosats for side and rear + 4 subs. For MC the other analog outs from the Esoteric -> direct to Meridian 861 MC input -> amps & speakers BUT the L/R stereo is as above without passing through the 861. This keeps the main stereo channels as direct and as unprocessed as possible. Note that all this couples nicely to the big pentagonal listening room which you can see pics and plans of at https://gallery.audioasylum.com/cgi/upload.mpl .

General Description of the Sound
The modification to the player has transformed it and that was needed. The audio quality had, for some unknown reason, seriously deteriorated ex the L/R analog and was relatively muffled and unimpressive. It was only listenable by taking the audio from the digital out to a (Nugent modified) Benchmark DAC1 back into the system. Yet surprisingly David Schulte reported no distortion and the behaviour of the UX-1 LE was according to specs! BTW I have been using an Esoteric G-0s Rb Masterclock connected to the player - I do sometimes practice what I preach!

So what is it like now? Well it does not transform every recording in the collection to SOA BUT has me rethinking the quality of many I previously criticized. In particular I had been very disappointed in the Philips “Sheherazade” (470 840-2) conducted by Valery Gergiev . It had sounded particularly congested before but has now opened up with great soundstaging/resolution and very sweet sounding violin playing. Other specific observations:

• Decca Legends CD - Mendelssohn/Bruch Violin concertos (1972) Sweet violin, no glare

• Neil Diamond CD - "Song Sung Blue" No raspiness in voice as was the case with the UX-1 (and other players) but was removed with the G-Os but now the G-Os makes no difference. .

• HDTT DVD-A tape transfer (1958) original. Startlingly great sound which left the Decca Legends CD for dead. Brilliant.

• Mercury SACD - Rimsky Korsakov Suite from "Le Coq d'OR" (1959) original Similar to the HDTT tape transfer disc. Exceptionally clean and well defined

• Chandos BAX symphonies with Vernon Handley conducting – delicate balance of instruments with excellent micro dynamics, soundstaging etc and a firm deep bass foundation.

• Hyperion “The Complete Keyboard Music” – harpsichord no longer jangling but a lovely delicate sound, rich in appealing harmonics

• Ultradisc II - Dinah Washington "What a Difference a Day Makes" Also exceptionally clean and well defined with the illusion she was in the room.

• Stereophile Cantus CD "Deep River" Superb. No hint of the glare - absolutely engaging in every way - their artistry shines through.

• Virgin Veritas Handel opera “Arminio” . Excellent soundstaging, resolution etc with no hint of strain on the voices as is often common in these productions.

• Classics for Pleasure “Choral Classics” – various choirs, previously sounded ordinary, something I put down to the penalty of buying a cheapie CD. Well, the transformation through the modded player is astounding. Great air, soundstage, …. I’ll stop as I’m just repeating myself.

I could go on and on at the risk of boring you rigid but that should be enough to illustrate the transformation David Schulte has achieved with a very musical sound top to extreme bottom (and that very low bass is impressive). The modded player can reveal the delicate nuances in a disc or reproduce climaxes with authoritative slam and conviction. And my wife and I have confirmed that switching the timing to be controlled by the Esoteric G-0s makes absolutely NO difference to the audio quality. Now that has me really foxed! And the sound from digital out to the Benchmark has also improved and is close to that from L/R analog ex the UX-1, but not so close my wife and I cannot detect the difference. I now have a BluRay player in the system (-> Meridian 621 -> MC digital to Meridian 861) and the sound from the UX-1 compares very favourably to the new digital audio formats. The quality of the music reproduction gets back to the skills of the recording engineers and producers rather than the digital format.

Another benefit is the ability of the UX-1 to play DVDs and so the improvements in audio extend to the many opera and other music items in the collection on this format. The video quality is close to HD thanks to the upscaling finesse of the iScan VP50 PRO so the increase in musicality is very satisfying. Note that I avoid the compressed MC formats and set the audio to 2CH using the same feedback technique to the processor as with CDs. This preserves the integrity of the audio on the important L/R channels but adds an attractive ambience to all video discs. For the few movies which benefit from the compressed bitstream digital audio, there is feed from the UX-1 to the processor so there is the best of both worlds in this system.

Outlandish Claims re Modifications?
There are some apparently outlandish claims on The Upgrade Company site and David forecast to me he would have my player sounding better than the super expensive stock P-03/D-03/G-0Rb setup, Note that David is also an Esoteric dealer so is familiar with the sound of all these items. But not having them here I cannot verify that claim to be true but I can report that the difference between reproduction on the best CDs here is now not far behind the best SACDs and DVD-As and is actually better than some. So yes, the initial recording quality remains the weakest link regardless of the format BUT fewer and fewer of the discs in the collection are likely to be relegated to the mediocre/poor basket with the advent of this modified player.

All of which has me scratching my few remaining hairs and not understanding why companies like Esoteric are not equaling what David can achieve. After all they do charge a lot for their gear. David claims he has made many bona fide breakthroughs in digital playback and, judging on the results I’m now hearing I cannot argue.

So, bottom line is my conclusion, if you want to improve the sound from your record collection, get in touch with David at The Upgrade Company. As you can see from the site he modifies a lot of different brands. If I sound like a salesman spruking for David then too bad. If you put down or be skeptical of what he offers then you are cutting off your nose to spite your face as IMHO, based on my experience, he could improve just about any player you have. But it all does justify one of my contentious claims that the front end is where dollars should be spent first when upgrading. No processor, amp, speaker or whatever can improve poor input, it can only mask it.

I’ve been messing around with audio ever since constructing a crystal set 65 years ago and it has taken this long with countless blind ends and wasting of dollars to finally achieve a musically satisfying system. But I do feel I have gone as far as I can reasonably go with the David Schulte mod to the player being the climax of a very long road.

I welcome any contact by email at j_coulson@[miss this out]bigpond.com to discuss aspects of audio and video. If any of you are ever visiting Tasmania, Australia, then please visit to hear for yourself.

John



Sadly (or is it happily?) an incurable audio-video nutter with an indecent number of toys. Classical music forever!!!!

• The Upgrade Company   (Open in New Window)

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---