Fresh User Reviews - September 2004

I also had Warren Gregoire implement the VSE Level IV mod into my Sony 9000ES; the single ended version of that mod. Eighteen months earlier I had had Dan Wright (Modwright) implement his Level III mods into that same machine.

Modwright mods improved the stock Sony player quite considerably. I enjoyed that version of the unit very much. It was a big deal improvement over the stock Sony. When at the Silverdale VSAC 2003 I had an opportunity to listen to the three modded SACD machines, and that short exposure motivated me to try the VSE mods.

The VSE mods contribute SIGNIFICANT additional improvement.

I have been living with the machine for approximately 2 months now. The "doubly modded" Sony 9000ES sounds truely awesome on SACD. I had that expectation. The machine also sounds absolutely wonderful on RBCD. I was not expecting that. SWG's description / impressions of RBCD are very similar to mine.

Overall impressions are: greater transparency with much greater sense of the downward dynamic range (DDR), there is no sense of haze or grain; provides a powerful "jump" factor, relating to dynamics; much better tonality; improved balance and/or linearity; and ultimately, much more lifelike. Moreover, while modern recordings can sound "spectacular", there is absolute magic in listening to recordings from the 30's and 40's just transform -- from historic, vintage recordings into living, breathing musical performaces. Really stunning, an absolute time machine.

With this machine, a well mastered RBCD is more musically enjoyable than a poorly mastered SACD. (With this machine, I can personally vouch, there are some SACDs whose mastering is "dicey" at best.) With this machine, the quality of the master tapes AND the quality of the mastering job become much more apparent in both SACD and RBCD format. Since over 90% of my digital library is RBCD, much of which will never be mastered into SACD consumer format, this is an important consideration.

Finally, when I default to vinyl playback, I continue to note a different quality of relaxation and sense of musicality that is not available from either SACD or RBCD on my moded 9000ES.......BUT, I am very much more aware of the distortions and aberations that my vinyl playback system introduces.

I find that I am not being "driven" to listen to vinyl playback -- digital sounds real fine around my house these days.

WTS (Washington State, USA)
 

I'm Michel Beauchamp from Montreal in Canada. You performed an upgrade from Level 2 to Level 4 on my SONY 9000es in June.

First, I want to re-iterate my deep satisfaction on the results of the mods. The difference between the level-2 and level-4 is equal if not greater than the one from the stock form to level-2. My system consists of a Simaudio I-5 integrated amp and Newform Research R645 speakers. On the speakers I improved the damping, changed the internal wiring and the crossover with Hovland caps and Alphacore inductors. I also removed the binding posts to connect the speaker cable directly to the internal wiring. The overall results are excellent. Very transparent and fast with tight bass.

Now a little story.

Part - 1

A friend of mine, his name is Eric, has been a fan of Linn for many years. He currently owns an Ikemi CD player with a Linn pre and amp. Eric has an excellent ear. Before all he favors the mid frequencies, specifically the voices. In his opinion nothing could match the Ikemi for its balance between relaxed presentation and level of details. He also owns a 9000es player for DVD playback. He's a collector of music shows. However he's not satisfied with the audio section of the stock 9000es. He's been searching for a DVD player that could more or less, match the performance of the Ikemi. When I first auditioned the Ikemi I liked it also. I thought I could live with it. In general terms it is more pleasant to listen to than the stock 9000es.

When I completed the of the upgrade of the 9000es to the Level 2, he came home with the Ikemi to compare both players. We did the evaluation on my system because it is much more revealing than his, with Mirage speakers. His conclusion of the comparison favored the Ikemi only because he found some harshness to the 9000es. On all other aspects he agreed that the Level 2 had the edge i.e. dynamic, transients, details, depth of image and overall staging. Personally I preferred the Level 2. I then told him to standby and wait until I get the 9000es with the Level 4 upgrade. He was doubtful that much would change. I was not. You did that upgrade in June.

In July he came back at my home with the Ikemi for another comparison session against the 9000es. I knew that the Sony was now an outstanding machine with the Level 4 but I had no reference to compare it to. So I was anxious to put it to test. Now the results. A devastating k.o. in favor of the 9000es. Every aspect of the music rendition is clearly superior on the Sony. In comparison, the Ikemi sounds congested, has a very flat image, misses in dynamic, lacks in extension at both ends of the spectrum, is much less resolving and the transients are not as fast. Regarding the harshness of the 9000es it is now gone at 90%. In summary he was floored. It took him a few weeks to realized what had happened. It was almost a paradigm shift.

Part - 2

In their issue no.70, the UHF (Ultra High Fidelity) www.uhfmag.com made an evaluation of the Linn Unidisc 1.1. They've been stunned by this universal player ($12,000 us). They even adopted it as their new reference source. In their opinion they never heard a better digital source. Only the very best vinyl recordings are superior according to them. Eric, whom is still a Linn fan, has been very impressed by this review. Through his contacts, he succeeded in arranging a comparison listening session between a Unidisc 2.1 and the 9000es. The Unidisc 2.1 ($8,000 us) is the little brother of the 1.1. It is basically the same machine than the 1.1 except that the audio section is using components of a lesser quality. People that have listen to both say that the difference is very subtle. At the place where we made the comparison, the salesperson even said that he doubts that there is a difference at all between both players.

So Wednesday this week we conducted that session. It lasted for two hours. The pre and amp were Mark Levinson, the speakers were Wilson Audio Sophia, the cabling mostly MIT (which I don't like) and the AC was fed through a Monster HTPS 7000. We first began with a CD on Ikemi player . Then we switched to the Unidisc. The Unidisc was clearly better than the Ikemi in all aspects, although the gap was not huge. We could easily recognize the Linn character. No surprise there. Then we switched to the 9000es. Eric and I were in disbelief. There was at least as much difference between the Unidisc and the 9000es than there was between the two Linn players. We switched back and forth several times with different CD's to make sure that we were not doing any mistake. We were not. The 9000es was clearly superior. Qualitatively the differences between the 9000es and the Unidisc are the same than between the 9000es and the Ikemi however quantitatively the gap obviously narrowed with the Unidisc. But still, there is a gap in favor of the 9000es. The only criticism that Eric had regarding the 9000es was that he perceived a slight hint of harshness in the voices and the mid-highs. I somewhat agreed with him. We don't perceive this with the Unidisc. In my opinion it's because the Linn player has a better transport (which is true) and also because Linn's philosophy favors smoothness over details and transients speed. To prove this I used a simple trick. I put a grungebuster CD mat from Herbie's Audio Lab herbiesaudiolab.home.att.net/ttmat.htm on top of the CD. This mat is very effective. It removed the very last trace of harshness, improved the articulation and brought instruments and voices to a sharper focus. It really put the 9000es to a superior level. Incredible improvement for $20. With the use of the mat, the gap between the Unidisc and 9000es widened. It proves that some work must be done to improve the damping and isolation of the 9000es transport. I'll look at that in the near future. This first part of the comparison was done with a CD. I noticed that the gap widens even more with better recordings.

Next we listened to a SACD. We only listened to one cut since we were running out of time. We listened to Rebecca Pigeon's Retrospective album, cut no.10 titled Grandmother. Her soft voice is very focused and full of nuances and subtle inflections. The gap between both player was not as big with SACD but the 9000es still had a slight edge. It goes a little deeper, bass is better controlled, the guitar attacks are sharper and notes have more harmonics. Next we listened to the same title with Herbie's mat. The rendition of the song on the 9000es with the mat literally gave me goosebumps. The 9000es digs so deep in the recording that it seems that nothing is left behind. A clear winning combination.

This experience left me speechless. I knew that the 9000es with the Level 4 was an excellent player but now I must revise my adjective. It is outstanding. The system on which we conducted the comparison has a very different presentation than my own one. Mine is not as powerful in the bass but is much more transparent and accurate. Eric compares it to a surgical instrument although it is not clinical. I believe that the same comparison made on my system could have led to the same conclusion with probably an even greater gap in favor of the 9000es.

The only question I still have is how big is the difference between the Unidisc 2.1 and the 1.1. From the readings I've done regarding the Linn players, I believe that on CD the 9000es would still have the edge over the 1.1 and could even match the CD12. On SACD I don't know.

Part - 3

At the beginning of this journey Eric was very sceptical that a modified Sony machine could match the Ikemi. Now he is strong a believer. So much that he'll send his 9000es to you to upgrade it. He'll contact you very soon to make the arrangements.

From a happy customer,

Michel Beauchamp (Montreal, Canada)
 

I must agree that the playback of RBCD is as pleasurable on my VSE modified SCD-1 as the SACD playback. I believe SACDs still sound better, more relaxed, spacious and detailed, but the joy of listening to music has really returned to me since having my SCD-1 modified by [VSE agent] Bill Thalman.

When comparing RBCD playback from the non-modified outputs to the modified ones it is obvious that the mod is worth the money even for regular CDs. The "modified" sound is far more detailed, has far better micro and macro-dynamics, is utterly free of "grain" and other electronic "artefacts" in the sound and is more extended sounding at both the lower and upper frequency extremes. This adds up to a much more musical presentation, less listener fatigue and a sense of ease to the music that allows me to just sit back and listen without constantly thinking about individual aspects of the reproduced sound. On the best of my RBCDs the sound is nearly the equal of SACD, and only some of the very worst sounding discs remain difficult to listen to. The added micro-dynamics and detail even make mediocre discs fun to listen to, because it is easier to hear the faults of the recording in a way that makes them both easier to identify for what they are, and easier to ignore. I think this phenomenon is equivalent to "hearing through" record noise with good vinyl playback.

SWG (Washington D.C. area, United States)