I guess I might as well jump in here. I've owned the Modwright/Sony for about a year now. Brand new out of the box, I thought Dan's 5400 sounded absolutely wonderful and I was pretty sure it would be a keeper.
After about 100 hours of break-in, I swapped out the stock tubes for NOS and added Dan's "Truth Umbilical"(who comes up with these names?). No big surprise, improvements across the board. Now a year later, I've purchased a new Oppo 95 intending to send it to Dan for the same mods.
The modded Oppo will be used in an AV system but I'm looking forward to doing a side by side comparison with my modded Sony which resides in my main system.
Like the Sony, the Oppo offers balanced/XLR outputs making for an ideal connection to my fully balanced Atma-Sphere MP-1 Mk3 preamp and MA-1 Mk3 mono's.
My good buddy, known as JWM on the 'Gon, also bought a Modwright/Sony 5400 same time I did and was impressed enough to jump on Dan's modded Oppo 95, used at this year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest; he beat me to it!
We both attended the show and had ample opportunity to hear an unmodded Oppo, the tube modded Oppo, and the tube modded 5400.
The unmodded Oppo 95, which I've been living with for a few weeks now, is a really nice sounding player and given the choice, I'd take it over an unmodified Sony any day. Every Sony ES player I've heard(more than a few) come off sounding rather boring.
On the other hand, the Modwright/Sony is a totally different animal. Dan pretty much guts it, adds his own components and separate tube power supply and you end up with a player that competes with those selling in the $10-15k price range; No Lie!
The tube modded Oppo 95, as a reviewer might say, "is cut from the same cloth" as the modded Sony. There's definitely a family resemblance and it definitely kills the stock unit.
Compared to the stock unit, the modded Oppo is more open, spacious, transparent, dynamic, extended at the frequency extremes, and more power and weight to the music. It also sounds smoother and more refined yet it's very revealing of little details and nuances. This may sound like blather but there are many posts here on the 'Gon and also on A-Asylum making similar observations about Modwright's modified players.
As for the differences between the modified Sony and modified Oppo 95, everyone in Dan's room agreed, they sounded very similar but the Oppo sounded noticeably fuller and warmer. In an already warm tube system, this might be too much of a good thing. If you're running solid state, it might be the way to go.
To my ears, the Sony sounded a bit cleaner and more revealing. As mentioned, I've been living with one for almost a year and I'd say it leans towards the warmer side of neutral and sounds very smooth, refined, and with a natural ease to the music. Not at all like digital.
On the other hand, JWM, who's been living with both modified players(Sony 5400 & Oppo 95), has been thinking he might slightly prefer the Oppo over the Sony. He's running about $50k worth of VAC tube gear and I'd say he prefers a somewhat warmer presentation than I do.
Well, it's getting late and I've blathered on long enough. Hope some of this is helpful to somebody.
Later
