Toshiba 3950/60 vs. 4960 ...(long)

Digital Drive

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

As many of you already know, I have a new Toshiba 4960 with mods up and running. Here are a few notes about it's performance, and how it's redbook playback stacked up against my modded 3950(s).
[btw, this player was modded by my brother John, who sells the modded 3950 players over at agon...sorry for the plug]
Rundown of the 4960:
This is Toshiba's latest universal player, which as Alex Peychev revealed not long ago, is actually a Samsung 841 on the inside.
The player uses a single board (for both power supply, and audio)which houses a BB DSD1608, 8 channel/ multi-format DAC. The stock opamps it uses are JR 4560's.

The 4960 Mod:
The mod performed to this player was a rather simple caps upgrade [using primarily panasonic FC's], and a discrete 2 channel output (similar to the Swenson mod)w/ Auricaps for output coupling. This (my) player's output is hard wired (uses no rca's)

Modded 3950's
For my comparison, I had 3 Toshiba 3950's on tap:
Player1: a basic Vinnie Rossi Mod w/ modest power cord upgrade, and 28ga silver signal wire (jumpers to upgraded rca's)
Player2: a more elaborate VR type mod with 2134 opamp, running silver's out/ no rca's
Player3: a full house mod featuring 'Swenson' output and Auricaps (here again, no rca's)

4960 Break-In:
Testing and break-in were done on what I like to call the 'pre-audiophile-days junk sony' which resides in my garage. It is of course heavily modded (my boombox is modded...heck, even my Direct TV boxes are modded). The system has respectable diy wiring, and competent NHT bookshelves, and has been arranged and resonance-tuned to near "don't touch it" status.
The player was anxiously hooked up, and placed on a shelf atop a set of diy roller balls. The first cd; a well recorded {sounds good on anything} guitar democd Ray Montford's "Many Roads".
I waited for John to come outside so we could both hear the first note... ... ..."what in the hell is wrong with this remote"
[more on that later]
First impressions were pretty stunning. It already seemed better than all of my 3950's, but I wasn't going to jump to conclusions.
We came back ~ 45 minutes later.
The player was becoming warm to the touch. Aamof, somewhere between warm, and very warm to the touch...

The sound 'flowed like wine', and all of that...it was getting better, but the player was very warm...As I was feeling past being protective over 200.00 worth of cd player; I said to John, "Let it melt for all I care, least it's in the garage."
We did give it a short break (about 5 minutes), figured out the repeat button/sequence, and threw in Hendrix Live at the Filmore East. [I know it like the back of my hand, and it's very good for being critical. It can sound like you are there, in the right system...]
"...and on guitar and vocals Mr. Jimi Hendrix.."
The claps were very ditinct; actually loud. Things were sounding very good indeed, and I took a break while the player ran solid for about 4 more hours...
It was now not getting any warmer [to the touch], which was good. But the SOUND was;
Clear, smooth and warm.
It may have lost a touch of detail, some of it's edge, or something...or maybe it was the sony; or both. I shut it down, and removed the disc...hey btw., disc not warm at all. Well, the transport IS on the opposite(far) side. Just a side note.

Fast forward...
Fired things up again later that day. 'Bling', better than ever...amazing even; And it stayed that way.
It now ran much cooler.
3-4 hrs later; still rather cool, and so was the music...pluck(boom) ...pluck(boom), the bass-line on 'machine gun'; the drums were crisp ... you could really tell it was a snare(snair?) drum. Things were startlingly- starting to get my attention, even from outside of the garage.
I was afraid to turn it off; That's how good it was sounding...

Comparisons, and a more competent system:
Since nothing new is allowed to take place in the 'Main' rig without far too much thought/preparation, I/we went with plan 'B';
A tweaked to the gills NAD C370 feeding a nice pair of homemade floorstanders; AKA, "the neighbor killers"... On a serious note, this system is more than capable of p. good hi-fi sound.
The bottom line; We were going to compare my 'House-Mod Swenson 3950 to the new 'Modman-Toshiba-Samsung 4960/ Prototype #1'.
...In all reality, the Swenson 3950 was the best choice (of the 3950's) for the test. And with it's(also) discrete output; we're comparing apples to apples.

The 3950; As many know, the Swenson mod does wonders for this player. Utterly natural sounding, smooth. But while it is very detailed, and ab-solute-ly engaging, it does lack a bit of clarity...
Enter the 4960; Just 100%...killed it in this area. Live music was a dead giveaway. Older, 'analog-y' stuff...like Ziggy Stardust, The Who (who' next)...
Clearer, AND more detail. ...The White Stripe 'elephant' was perfect example of this.

That being said, let's not assume it's a clear winner; And let's look for any major differences in the mods:
They are both using primarily the same caps [fc's and auricaps].
The main ps cap of the 4960 is slightly bigger in proportion to it's stock value.
The x caps were removed from the 4960, while similar stock caps are remaining in the 3950.
* the recommended 300pf shunt caps for the Swenson's output...our 4960 didn't have'm. [we were not getting any ill effects of that either, btw.]
With the 300pf's removed from the 3950; did seem to lift a small amount of veil. However, the defining characteristics of the player remained.
The 3950 IS highly detailed AND liquid sounding, but we just kept feeling like it was getting steam-rolled by the 4960, until...
...we dug up the junk/ and-or mildly compressed digital garbage:
Cd's like:
Rolling Stones (pick one)
The Police 'every breath you take'
Neil Young's cd material
heres a good one...Midnight Oil 'earth and sun and moon'
The 3950, true to form, has a way of 'un-zipping' compressed garbage, and making it listenable...
But, the 4960 did consistently come out on top with any and all well recorded material. To my ears, it sounds more correct, and I suppose the bottom line is; it is clearer and more detailed. The 3950 is warmer, and even perhaps more charming. I can, and do listen to it for hours on end [and this I have yet to do with my new 4960], so perhaps my opinion will change...
"Well, that's great, but how's the BASS?"
Better too, ...basshead!
In fact this leads me what I feel defined this player; Sence of immediacy, and impact.
The 4960 has the uncanny ability to startle. It is utterly natural, and it will absolutely get your attention.

...but those are just words, check one out for yourself.

FC

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Parts Connexion

Topic - Toshiba 3950/60 vs. 4960 ...(long) - Fatcobra 13:22:19 08/02/04 (4)

Re: Toshiba 3950/60 vs. 4960 - Davet 14:03:35 08/02/04 (1)

Re: Toshiba vs. ? - Bare 19:04:44 08/03/04 (0)

Soundstaging question - BobM 13:47:41 08/02/04 (1)

Re: soundstage comparison - Fatcobra 03:03:38 08/04/04 (0)

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