Cost effective mods for a Sony SCD-777ES

SOTA has many different flavors these days as a quick listen to the variety of SOTA digital players will reveal. Using an external DAC is the easiest way to experiment with different flavors.

However, replacing the clock and upgrading the power supply on the Sony would be beneficial to it's function as a transport.

Also forgot to mention the transport cap upgrade; I would do that along with the clock. IMO the Sony DAC is still considered one of the best and not the weak link here.

Chuck

I have an SCD-1 with the Sperclock and transport upgrades. The addition of a Sonic Frontiers Processor 3 provided a substantial improvement in Bluebook performance. I might add that any mods performed will probably not prove to be a good investment at resale time.

Chuck,

The transport cap mod does improve things. There are several more mods that make an even larger improvement to the transport:

(1) Replace 4 SMD coupling caps on Main Board & RF board with radial-lead teflon.

(2) Replace signal path SMD resistors on Main & RF Board with radial-lead Caddock or Vishay.

(3) Eliminate ground loops. Remove Main Board center standup post and run ground wire from center tab to IEC earth. Replace all metal washers on the perimeter standups with nylon to sever multiple grounds.

(4) Upgrade power board 5V & 3.3V regulators to discrete assemblies such as Audiocom Invisus PPR2. Then bypass the two crappy 5V-to-3.3V SMD down-regulators on the main board, by running jumpers directly to the 3.3V source regulator. A major improvement.

More available, but much of this is only cost-effective for the DIYer.

Dave

Wow. Lots of great advice. Thanks everyone. I am Mr. Conservative. I am very nervous to spend - $1,000 and not be able to get it back when I sell it. I think I will buy an external DAC rather than continue to modify it. Mine has Black gate capacitors and Vishay resistors. I will leave it at this level. Any suggestions for external DACs. My local tweak guy says - use a modded Bel Canto DAC 1?