How can I improve my Sony SCD-777ES for red book

I have modified my SCD-1 twice and now have all the available mod's from Audiomod (Richard Kern) I generally feel this is far and away the best money spent in that so much of the SCD-1/777ES is beyond anything a similar dollar would buy. In your case however you are straddling the line. First off, your motors and lasers are around five years old and will die in the coming year or so. I had both motors and both laser pick-ups replaced at the same time as my last mod. This was around $500.

Given that cost, and shipping round trip to Portland you are left with only a few mod options in your budget. I would get Superclock 3 and Superclock 3 power supply, about $300 each. I then suggest the op-amps being replaced followed by the power regulators. This is possibly beyond your budget, but that would be the order I would consider.

Now if you feel you could better the level this would produce, then go for it. I guess I still consider the mod route the best though.

Richard Wright of Modright will I think take this to a full tube output status.Trying to think of very hot selling D/A and PS that they allowed him to keep factory wararnty [PS3 and PSA were models].If I think of name I'll email you.Ouboard keeps flexiblity but if you mnotice even the big boyz are going one piece-less dreaded jitter generally inherent in these designs and no cabling issues.Toss up.Ayre,Gamut,Music Fidelity,etc have excellent CD players (and some like Muiscal Fidelity offer both players and converters).Another factor is the kind of discs OTHER than red book you might want to play.No to all but some SACD's are breathtaling.Esoteric (Teac high end) runs universla discs if that's an issue.Denon or $1K befor mods rubs all the idscs though buddy picked $1K Sony as he thinks SACD is entrenched and DVD-A may wither on vine especially id DVD-HD or Blyue Ray get there act together but thinks SACD will still survive.Think that once you eveluate the cost (many times not cheap) of upgrades you may think it's a bust head to head with what some some companies are offering in your price range.But sopme folks become almost Mooney like devotee's to blcakgates and fast diodes and Vishay resistors anmd figures nobody will rpoduce the HG you get from the mod squad crowd if you but a ready made.May time the modsters have levels so why not take what you have (though they are pickly about which are "worth thier time and your money" and go with first level.If it lights a fire send back for full make over (hopefully the premium for breaking up the process won't be so great).I am cheap so thinking I will go with the $1K D./A bought used and whenm my pocet are more chinga lingy I'll get the mods.But that's me.
G'luck
Chazzbo

The external DAC route will yield the best results on CD's. If you go this route, I recommend that you get the digital output and clock modified in the transport. Here is some more info on why:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm

A great DAC, even stock is the Benchmark DAC-1. It has improved a lot in the last year. With mods, it will go way beyond "nice". It becomes hard to beat, and will probably beat out the SACD, even with mods.

I second Billspecfoc's recommendation. The VSE Level 5 mod takes the 777ES to an entirely difference arena of performance. I respectfully disagree with Billspecfoc in one respect---the SACD playback is transformed to level where it is as enjoyable as my vinyl system. RBCD is transformed significantly and, where I would probably agree with Billspecfoc, the gains in RBCD are greater than in SACD, but overall SACD playback is still superior to RBCD---by a small but significant margin. This, of course, is my opinion---however, I don't think there is any debate about the fact that the VSE mod transforms the 777ES.

It depends on whether you wish to persue the dying SACD-route further or not. For an improvement in red-book only, I would try a Benchmark DAC-1 for 1000 $ or Grace M902 for 1700$. Already the Benchmark should give you a huge improvement in red book CD-listening.