Modwright Platinum Truth Sony 999ES


Which players out there today under $6k will outperform the Modwright Platinum Truth Sony 999ES in 2 channel reproduction? Thanks for the suggestions.
kmiller5
Thanks Alvin, glad you are enjoying your Modwright 999ES.

Maril,
I don't have experience with Modwright's 3910, but I have owned he 999ES and now have the 9000ES. Assuming that the power supply and tube stage is the same, then I would think that the results would be the same.

Tubes are very subjective to your ears and your system. In my system, on the 9000ES I have great success with GE JAN 7044s. Another tube that works very well is the Philips SQ E182CC, a little more detailed and extended than the 7044, but not quite the midrange of the 7044. Either way, both of these run circles around the T-Sols in my system.

The umbilical of choice is made from cryo'ed Jena Labs stranded copper wire, terminated with Neutrik connectors. It makes for a more dimensional soundstage, and adss an analog-like naturalness to the midrange and extremes that the silver does not do, at half the cost. In a word, it adds "musicality" to the player.
Let me add one more thing that I forgot about...

Power cords have made a positive difference for me in the Modwrights as well.

I like a VD Nite II or a Xindak Gold on the 9000ES itself, and the Poiema III fits the bill on the power supply.

I hear that Purist Audio Dominus are very good matches for both positions, but they are too rich for my blood, and I haven't heard them yet.
I have two local audiophile friends, each of whom owns a Modwright 999ES as part of reference systems. They have both experimented with several power cords on the player and power supply including Poiema!!!, DCCA Extreme Reference, Revelation Audio Precept, TG Audio 688, Soundstring, Elrod EPS-2, and PAD Dominus. The clear winner has been the Dominus. I believe the current configuration is Dominus Fluid on the player and Dominus Ferrox on the power supply. Neither of these guys was particularly keen on spending the money for the Dominus cords, but when they both heard what the Purist cords did to the sound, they opened their checkbooks...
Playing around with power cords is something you do after you put in Mundorf sliver/gold in oil coupling caps!!! Coupling caps are directly in the signal path along as with grid stopper resistors which I had Dan put in a quad of Audio Note Tantalum resistors and a pair of Mundorf silver in oil caps. My Sony 9000 is very detailed and yet very smooth. My pre is a passive autoformer which lets through all the detail and dynamics the machine has to offer.