Hi Mrtennis, the way I understand it, the tubes-or-no question may be less relevant than you might think (though I'm certainly not doubting your experiences in the least), but generally it may come down more to 1) whether or not a piece has been modified or not and 2) who's doing the modding - what their overall level of experience level at modding is. Modding in this case is relevant because in fact so many makers out there are just plain cutting corners in order to compete, even in the over-$5000 category! It's industry-wide, but with CDP's it manifests itself in players that are typically either very good or near SOTA on the digital side internally, but in the still crucial analog domain they are anywhere from acceptable to just plain dismal. If manufacturers weren't so determined to cut corners in areas where they know consumers aren't any paying attention then it's likely modders would be out of a job overnight. But, if you will take the time to see for yourself, there are plenty of modders out there...a bad sign for manufacturers - a good thing for us maybe, but only if you can find an ethical modder. When it comes to modding in general, it turns out, that from a modder's perspective and when considering what particular piece of gear to mod, you really don't know if a given piece will respond well to all the tricks of the trade of modifying or not until you actually try it to start with and see. Sometimes you come up short: a fair amount of work and experimenting only to end up with a piece that doesn't actually sound all that much noticeably better for the effort. Something about that piece may be telling you that it's somehow inherently not worth modding. It COULD be a matter of trying a different approach in order to tease out a better result, but this is really more a matter of the overall skill and saaviness of the particular modder than perhaps anything else, but sometimes you may still end up with a rock. But, also sometimes you end up with something that's pretty dang good indeed...and then again once in a while you get something out of it that, as an experienced modder even, just blows you away at how good it can sound and I think that's what any modder that's worth his salt lives for. The confusion here for most people may be that not all modders are created equal. Some seem to be patient and persistent experimenters and take the time to actually LISTEN the results and think things through. Other modders are far less likely to experiment on their own and time and again choose to stick to a standard way of doing things that others have already pioneered...which all too often tends to be outdated ways of doing things. These folks tend to do lots of what's called "parts swapping" and try to do so according to a 'recipe' that is hopefully good in every situation (which it usually isn't) in an attempt to take out for themselves the 'case-by-case' complexity that this art otherwise calls for. They may or may not listen themselves to the results. What's likely worse is that these sorts of modders tend to charge rather high prices for their work...in my mind it amounts to gouging and in the minds of many audiophiles who also see what they are doing in the way that they market themselves it may amount to so much snake oil. But, these sorts of mods almost always sound at least something better than stock, but it's just that their inherent value will be considerably less than that from an ethical modder. Ric in my own opinion is one of the all-too-few ethical modders. His pricing reflects a very low overhead as he will gladly tell you and this fact currently results in a marketplace in which Ric enjoys the contradictory circumstance of being (again in my opinion) both the best and least expensive of the modders I'm aware of. I suppose that amounts to a "plug alert", but there it is. Hope this helps.
