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Hi-Rez Highway: REVIEW: Philips Electronics Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright CD Player/Recorder by Pete Watt

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REVIEW: Philips Electronics Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright CD Player/Recorder

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Model: Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright
Category: CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price: $1650.00
Description: Philips SACD 1000 with ModWright Signature Truth Mod
Manufacturer URL: Philips Electronics
Manufacturer URL: Philips Electronics

Review by Pete Watt ( A ) on May 24, 2003 at 12:46:43
IP Address: 198.81.26.172
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for the Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright


PART ONE:

After utilizing a variety of individual digital front-end components (transport, DSP, DAC) in combinations over the past eight years, I decided to switch to a single box CD player based on SACD technology. My decision was based in part on my feeling that I had taken the individual component approach about as far as it could go and in part on the numerous reviews that have come out recently proclaiming the superiority of top-of-the-line SACD players for both SACD and Red Book reproduction. Although I have some slight interest in comparing SACD to Red Book, my overriding objective is to obtain the best sonic reproduction for my current CD library of over 3000 discs (mostly classical music) at an affordable price.

After auditioning a variety of Sony and Philips units, I selected the Philips SACD 1000. While I must admit that the deeply discounted price of the Philips (which I bought at Tweeter last December as did so many others)inflluenced me, I can honestly say that I preferred its overall sonic signature to that of the two Sony's I listened to in my system -- the Sony 999 (stock) and the Sony 9000 (extensively modified by Audience). Specifically, I found the Sony's to be quite similar (with the edge going to the modified 9000), both providing exceptional detail resolution, base extension and clarity within an overall very neutral, transparent, if somewhat dry presentation. The reason I came to prefer the SACD 1000 was that, despite exhibiting less detail and clarity, it simply to my ears sounded much more like real music. I noticed that, even compared to my well resolved combination of separates which provided excellent detail, sound staging and tonal quality, I kept coming back to the Philips.

The sonic profile I did based on numerous listening tests with the stock SACD 1000 included many majors pluses -- great sound stage, base extension, tonal quality and overall musicality -- but with some short comings in the areas of detail and base clarity.

At this juncture, I had the opportunity to audition in my system the modified SACD 1000 which Dan Wright had demoed at CES. The improvements over the stock Philips unit were remarkable -- improved base extension and clarity, plus superb sound stage and musicality. While the was some improvement in detail and resolution, I felt it was still not up to the level of the Sony's. Finally, I felt the overall sound seemed to me to be slightly constricted. This particular phenomena seems unique to a quirk in my system which does not seem to like filter technology of any kind. In this case, I concluded, it was the Bybee filters which Dan includes in all his mods. I have had similar negative experiences with Bybee's added to my previous digital power supply, with the PS Audio Ultimate Outlet which I tried briefly with my Spectron amp, and with a line conditioner that contained a filter. I have since dropped all filter technology power conditioning from my system and gone instead with an Exact Power regenerator which now drives all my systems components and which has made a tremendous different.

After the above experience, I talked with six different mod providers, but ultimately selected Dan based on the demo unit I had auditioned and on the fact that I wanted the unique tubed analog output stage than is part of Dan's Signature Truth mod. Dan agreed to do a custom version of the Signature Truth mod for me, dropping the Bybee filters and adding Shakti on-lines, plus some damping and RFI/EMI tweaks. When I received my unit back and gave it sufficient burn-in time (the Black Gates take all of 200 hours to come around), I was really impressed with the new level of performance. Again, even further depth and base extension, very lyrical treble, transparent sweet sounding mid-range, ambient multi-dimensional sound stage and better delineation of ensemble instruments. Overall musicality is outstanding -- as close to live music as I have ever heard. All of my previous reservations have disappeared with the exception of detail resolution and base clarity, and although these areas have also gotten much better, they still are not quite up to the standard set by the Sony units (especially the modified 9000) I had listened to in the beginning.

I discussed all this with Dan, and we decided to add one final set of mods. These will include the addition of the Superclock 2, replacement of the ModWright high qrade copper signal wiring with silver, some possible inprovements in the tubed analog output stage, and some further chasse damping. I have alway felt that obtaining a high level of detail and tranparency is not mutually exclusive with achieving life-like musicality and tonality, and I hope that this next change from ModWright will prove the point. In any case, when I have received my unit back from Dan and have allowed time for burn-in and extended listening, I will post PART TWO of this review.

Overall, I believe the Philips SACD is an excellent platform for modification. You start out with a unit that originally cost $2000, but which can now be obtained for $400 to $600. The quality of componentry in the base unit is remarkable: analog multi-layer PCB DAC boards, linear power supply, absence of op-amps, discrete outputs for all three stereo DAC's, massively stable torodial power supply and Class A mode in all twelve discrete amplification modules. Adding the cost of Dan's current and future mods will still bring this unit in at under $2000. The result should be a world class CD player, which I hope will approach the quality of the best of breed at a fraction of the cost.

One last word on the issue of reliability. I have read as we all have the numerous posting complaining of problems others have experienced with the SACD 1000. Let me say two things. First of all, I have had zero problems with my Philips unit over the past six months of extensive listening. To get some outside perspective I contacted Ed Meitner, who incorporates the Philips transport into his top-of-the-line offerings, and he told me that with all of the numerous units he has moved through his operation, only one has failed. Second, in my view, one of the advantages in doing business with Dan Wright is that he will accept back for repair any unit he has modified. His policy is to repair anything involving his mods at no charge and will repair any failure of a factory component for the cost of the parts alone. As Dan says, this should give the customer some peace of mind regarding warranty.


Product Weakness: Detail and base clarity
Product Strengths: Musicality, sound stage, tonality, base extension


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Spectron Digital One Class D
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Conrad Johnson PV-12 (modified)
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Philips SACD 1000 with ModWright
Speakers: B & W Nautilus 802's
Cables/Interconnects: Audience AU 24's
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical
Room Size (LxWxH): 20 x 18 x 12
Room Comments/Treatments: None
Time Period/Length of Audition: Two month
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Exact Power 1000
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Philips Electronics Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright CD Player/Recorder - Pete Watt 12:46:43 05/24/03 ( 2)