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Hi-Rez Highway: REVIEW: ModWright Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright SACD Player (Modded) by Pete Watt

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REVIEW: ModWright Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright SACD Player (Modded)

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Model: Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright
Category: SACD Player (Modded)
Suggested Retail Price: $1650.00
Description: Philips SACD 1000 with ModWright Signature Truth Mod
Manufacturer URL: ModWright
Manufacturer URL: ModWright

Review by Pete Watt ( A ) on October 31, 2003 at 08:23:26
IP Address: 198.81.26.145
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for the Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright


PART TWO:

**Introduction**

This is a follow-on to the review I posted on May 24,2003, describing my SACD 1000 enhanced with Dan Wright's Signature Truth Mod. Please note that with few exceptions all my listening tests were performed utilizing redbook CDs, due to the size of my collection. That review is available via the following link:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hirez/messages/138876.html

Briefly summarizing PART ONE, I chose the SACD 1000 as my platform for modification after auditioning various Philips and Sony players. At the time, I felt confronted by a set of unappealing trade-offs. The Sony units (stock 999 and modified 9000) provided exceptional detail resolution, base extension and clarity within an overall neutral, transparent and rather dry presentation. The stock Philips SACD 1000, on the other hand, possessed great sound staging, base extension, tonal quality and overall musicality, but with limitations in the areas of detail and base clarity.

After Dan applied a revised version of Signature Truth Mod (dropping the Bybee filters, but adding Shakti on-lines plus some other tweaks), the performance of the SACD 1000 got dramatically better -- improved base extension, very lyrical treble, transparent sweet sounding mid-range, multi-dimensional sound stage and excellent delineation of ensemble intruments. Musicality was outstanding. However, two concerns remained: the Philips still did not possess the level of detail resolution and of base clarity I had heard in the best of the Sony units (the Audience modified 9000). Dan brought the unit back into his shop and began to investigate additional custom mods that he felt had the potential of making the SACD 1000 best-of-breed in its price range. PART TWO of my review describes the results of these efforts.

**SACD 1000 with Signature Truth and Custom Mods**

Some of the changes Dan made featured new or upgraded components -- the addition of the Superclock II, replacement of copper signal path wiring with Empirical Audio high grade silver, replacement of the Tung-Sol 5687's with NOS Amperex PQ 7119 tubes. Other changes required modifying the basic architecture of the Signature Truth Mod -- directly coupling the DAC's to the tubed output stage, revising the paralleling of the DAC's, and improving the filtering in the power stage to lower the noise floor. But the most important revision Dan made was to entirely replace the standard Signature Truth tubed electronics with a much higher quality circuit. This is the same analog output circuit Dan uses in his much more expensive mod to the Sony 777 and in his soon-to-be released ModWright branded preamp.

After three weeks of heavy listening, I'm delighted to announce that my SACD 1000 with Dan's latest mods has met or exceeded all my expectations and, in my opinion, has risen to a new level of performance. Tonal quality in both the mid-range and treble has improved. Base extension is deeper and tigher. Sound staging is the best I have ever heard -- very ambient, dimensional and delineated. Detail resolution is accurate, revealing and very transparent. And finally overall musicality (my subjective measure of does-this-sound-like-real-music) is almost off the chart. I couldn't keep myself from giving it an "11" on my scale of 1 to 10. If I had to point to any deficiency, I guess it would be the tendency of redbook CDs (especially older ones) to sound slightly on the bright side, although even this was toned down by Dan's latest set on mods.

**Reliability**

In PART ONE of my review I made the mistake of pointing out that I had had "zero problems with my Philips unit." I guess I never should have offended the gods in this manner. Sure enough, in the course of Dan's testing, my unit began to fail intermittently and eventually died completely. Dan had already added the RF filter fix which Alex Peychev had defined and is now routinely applied by Jim Lucas at the Philips Repair Center in Tampa. But unfortunately my MACD servo controller was apparently already shot and had to be replaced. I can't begin to tell you how pleased I was when Alex agreed to Dan and my request and installed one of his own MACE2 chips in my unit before it was returned to me. With the likes of Alex, Jim and Dan on the job, I firmly believe that reliability and repair is now no more an issue on the SACD 1000 than on any of a number of other players on the market today.

**Conclusions**

Notwithstanding my strong positive feeling for my ModWright SACD 1000, I feel very reluctant, even based on my last series of listening tests, to say that it is clearly superior to Player X,Y or Z. First of all, we all know how subjective the definition of "the Best" can be. I freely admit that I prefer my audio performance to be more on the euphonic, analog, warm side but still combined with a high degree of detail and transparency. Others I'm sure may prefer a totally detailed, accurate and even lean presentation and still feel that it sounds more like "real music." Of course, other elements come into play -- acoustic environment, room treatments, systems conditioners of various types, etc. Obviously, all of this makes it difficult to say one player is clearly superior to another.

Having said that, the urge to compare, evaluate and pass judgment is just too strong to resist. If you don't believe me, just revisit the torrent of postings on the Asylum involving the "digital demo" at VSAC. Accordingly, I cannot resist setting up a structured comparison of sorts (I want to avoid the word "Shootout". Within the next few weeks, Alex Peychev has agreed to bring his modified SACD 1000 down to San Diego for a head-to-head comparison. And in order to keep some degree of balance, I have arranged to have a highly modified Sony 999 from Audience also on hand. After some quality listening, I hope to post PART THREE of this review, and to document my own conclusions with as little subjectivity as I can muster.


Product Weakness: Slight brightness, past reliability issues
Product Strengths: Mid-range and treble realism, base extension, sound stage, detail resolution, transparency, musicality


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 Mod Wright
Speakers: B & W Nautilus 802's (bi-wired)
Cables/Interconnects: Alpha-Core Goertz MI2; Audience AU24's
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical
Room Size (LxWxH): 20 x 18 x 12
Room Comments/Treatments: None
Time Period/Length of Audition: Three weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Exact Power 1000 regenerator
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: ModWright Philips SACD 1000 / ModWright SACD Player (Modded) - Pete Watt 08:23:26 10/31/03 ( 22)