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RE: Is this worth the cost?

Posted by stvnharr (A) on September 6, 2009 at 12:05:53

In Reply to: Is this worth the cost? posted by Panelhead on September 6, 2009 at 11:28:50:

Hi George,
I thought about addressing this issue in my review, but decided not to, but can do so a little now. In essence is it cost effective to fix up an older player to a high standard or buy a higher priced stock player? Well, the only way one can truly answer this one is to compare players in a true A/B.
The only A/B comparison of stock to modded players I have ever heard was at RMAF 2006 in the RAM room with Marantz 8001, Oppo, and stock Esoteric (the $14k one as I don't remember the model number). The RAM modded 8001 and Oppo were both indistinguishable from the Esoteric, to me and everyone else in the sessions I attended.
My mods are a little different from the RAM mods, but, the TF clearly outperforms the SC3, so likely is a step up from SC4 in the RAM player. The DOS and RAM output stages are different, but both are very good. The 8001 and 8260 are nearly identical inside in the digital sections.

So, does it make sense to put a $600 clock in a low cost player? Well, not really unless you do everything else to get full benefit. If you do it incrementally or all at once, it still is only gonna add up to about $1k, if you do it all DIY. If you pay a modifier, it's gonna be maybe half again as much or so.

The magic question then is do you have $1-1.5K of performance, or something quite a bit more. Without direct comparison, it's all just speculation. However, my own highly speculative and highly colored opinion is that my suped up player would be quite competive with players that are a LOT more expensive. But without direct comparison, it's just my silly opinion.

Steve

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