Samsung Hd841 or Toshiba 4960 modifications

OK. Let me post my impression of RAM 4960. I just got my yesterday and I am still running it 24/7. I plan to run it 7 days continually.

Pros:
First, the RAM 4960 has a kind of analog sound. No way it will touch 10K+ highend CDP. But for the money it is very good that you get kind of analog sound.

Second, the reason why you get analog sound. I think this mainly due to "SuperClock3". the high is much smooth than many CDPs. It is very smooth. Superclock greatly reduced Jitter and produced very smooth and enoyable high. Violin,piano and soprano now very listenable and enjoyable. This produced an overall enjoyable listening experience across the whole frequence band.

Cons:
Upper low to mid seems a little congested(I will write an update after 7 days of running to see how much improvements it gets after break in). The sound stage and imaging is not as great as highend players. I think this may due to lack of break in now. But more likely due to lowend DAC used in 4960. More open,clear and analytical in this erea will greatly improve the overall performance of this player.

Overall, it is an great improvement over stock unit. Will it beat and $10K hignend CDP? I will wait to vote after a week.

Thank you for this update, Audiosu! Hope that the player continues to sound better and better as it breaks in. Wish you good luck with it for the long term.

One question I have, if you please? I have a stock Samsung HD-841 that I will eventually mod, and the low frequency performance of the machine leaves more than a lot to be desired. I was hoping that this would be a major focus of the modders and an area of significant improvement. Can you please let us know what you think of your player's bass performance?

Thank you in advance,
Joe

the bass tightens up and becomes much more articulate. wooly and untamed before mods. i have the toshiba (non-RAM modded).

I think your experiences were better than mine, Musicdoc. With my Samsung in CD mode, I would have been happy were it wooly and untamed. It was more nonexistent for me. SACD is much better, though still not up to the level I consider acceptable. My hope is with a seriously beefed up power supply and output, it then competes with most digital players.

My RAM mod 4960 is getting better after a few days of break in, but the CD performance in terms of low to mid-low frequence range is still kind of soft compared to the CD player of thousands of dollars. The SACD performance is awesome, I think can be compared to some more expensive machines like someone said 'LINN Unidisk'.

Some important issues regarding 4960,

You must run audio setup first before you use it as CD player. Some may just use it as CDP and "plug and Play', like I did, that is why I got poor bass performance at first, because 4960 is setup for multi channel play. You need to disable other speakers and Sub(FLE) in "speaker setup" so that 4960 will send bass signals to your front speakers(L and R). You also need to select "L and R" speaker as "large". One more tirck, when play in SACD mode, the 4960 alway play in "Multi channel" mode at first, you need press "Audio or 'L & R cursor'" button to change to Stereo mode(In CD mode "Audio" button change play mode in: "R","L","Stereo"). That was why my 4960 sound so bad at first listen(no bass) that I wanted to return it. SACD/DVD-As are widely available and they are the future. I think for $870 you get a great sounding SACD player that also players CD well.

By using the Best CD player NAIM CDS2/XPS as refernece
(Naim CDS2/XPS:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1201/naimcdsii.htm
LInn Classik:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0400/classickan.htm )
, I would like to give 4960 scores

CD performance: 85
Pro: Refined sound,sweet high articulate mid and kind of analog sound.
Con: sound stage and bass could be better

SACD performance: 92
Pro: Pro: Refined sound,sweet high articulate mid and kind of analog sound, big 3D sound stage and imaging.
Con: bass could be better