scd 777es sacd sony mod worth it?

My modified 777 arrived Fri night. It's FAR too early to give a detailed impression, and frankly I don't consider myself qualified to do so. I don't have a golden ear and my vernacular is sorely lacking in describing what I hear. But I can tell you if I like it or not, and why.Right out of the box it is a tad bright and tight, expected, given all the new parts and soldering etc. In the time it's taken to do the mod, seemingly years, I've been listening to a phenomenal transport/DAC combo that was far better to my ear than the stock 777. Even on SACD. And better than other units I've had in my system including upsamplers/dacs such as dCS. Right out of the box, the modified 777 is at the very least competetive with this combo in direct A/B comparisons. At the very least. I'm pleasantly surprised, and my expectations were high. I'll elaborate to the best of my ability after I give it some time. And to reiterate, this is not my only front end, and in fact not my only digital front end, so I have nothing to prove other than what I think sounds best to me. Placebo schmeebo, if it sounds better or worse, it sounds better or worse. To me.I do have access to stock units and I do plan on comparing them to the mod. But again, my current transport/dac is unequivically better sounding than the stock 777. And right out of the box the mod is at least right there with this combo. You do the math.

Mes, pray tell, what is the "phenomenal transport/DAC combo" you had while the 777 was being modified?

Mes: thank you for preliminary report. I will be waiting for the nest one. When you do it, please describe your system. Thanks a lot, again. Simon

Mark, thanks for your clear cut words. Forget about the vocab and the ears, just tell us what you hear. You are experienced enough to be trustworthy. At least that's what I think. I myself haven't contacted Audience yet. I think I'll give them about six weeks until I'll start probing a bit. Eager to hear your next report and yes, what is that gear you are talking about, which seems to sound so good? Regards,

Demian Martin, Tony DiGiovine and I formed DDR Mfg to build a fancy DAC and Transport....These are called the Number Cruncher and Number Server and are in boxes to match the Blowtorch preamp I build with Curl and Thompson and Mark has the updated versions of the older production units made by Entec and G&D Transforms.....The DDR units are built to order and are very expensive, but updates are available on the older production units......

Bob Crump
TG Audio/Curl Thompson Crump (CTC) Builders/DDR Mfg