Resolution Audio Opus 21 TRL Audio mod

I've had mods done by TRL on a DAC and Steve at GNSC on the Opus 21....no knock on Paul or TRL at all, but Steve is the man when it comes to the Opus, don't think twice about having him mod your unit...

Could be guys that Steve won't mod his Opus 21! Couple months ago I bought from Steve an new 21 with reference mods and waited for the unit to be completed. Steve informed me that he was likely, in the very near future (this was late Dec. early Jan 08) that he would only be doing mods on new units purchased from him due to a couple parts he uses where becoming too difficult to get. So maybe the search is on for an alternative company to mod his unit. If this is the case, I would honestly wait til a GNSC modded unit becomes available and buy that over going with another mod company that does not have a developed reputation on a specific unit. Again, nothing against TRL or the Upgrade Co., both have good reps, but I personally don't want to be the test rabbit with a product that may not have any more value after the mods. vs. before. Unless the mods are great and many, many people use the same company there won't be any or much perceived value for a "no-name" modification. My guess is that either TRL or Upgrade would have to mod 50-100 units before they became well recognized on the Opus 21!

Just to clarify. We do still mod Opus 21's that have not been purchased through GNSC. There are some distinct advantages (warranty coverage and mod cost) in working through us on the whole package but we do still mod them if someone sends a unit. Parts to properly do these mods are indeed in short supply though, and understandably priority goes to units bought from GNSC.

Respectfully,
Steve Huntley

I can't speak to how it compares to what anyone else does, but I'm certainly happy to supply details on what we do.

The modifications first and foremost are not to correct anything that is in any way lacking in the stock unit from a design standpoint. Our approach is simply to give that excellent circuit design the best environment to do it's thing. It simply would not have been possible to incorporate these kinds of things into a CD player at anywhere near the price of the Opus.

In our best mod (the Reference level upgrade) this means extremely exhaustive vibration control of the transport (trust me, nobody can damp a transport the way we do it through Allison Dynamics who has been working with us on damping CD mechanisms for I think 7 or 8 years now), we also damp key components, transformers, both chassis, etc. Also it means adding local energy reservoirs and filtering right where you need it in the circuit for the greatest dynamic capabilities and cleanest power. We employ noise reduction techniques, power filtering on the AC input, upgrade the AC power buss, etc.

Our less costly Standard mod is a subset of this upgrade but if you asked me, the better value is the Reference mod because with that additional budget, we can simply accomplish a lot more.

We really don't think an approach that changes the basic design of the unit would be beneficial. We decided to put some of our focus and resources on developing these mods because it is such a good platform to begin with. Our approach was to spend an awful lot of time developing a modification that accomplished the exact sonic results we were trying to acheive (and offers a great value in the process). I think there is plenty that's been said in this forum and elsewhere about the results we acheive. We also provide full support for the units we modify...an extremely important part of the equation.

Hope this provides some clarification of our approach and what is unique about what we offer.

Respectfully,
Steve Huntley

I had my player modded by GNSC earlier this year. The first thing I noticed when I got it back was how quiet and silky smooth the transport was compared to the stock player. The transport damping part of the mod is immediately evident. The benefit of GNSC's mods to this player have been discussed ad nauseum, but suffice it to say it's an excellent player.