CD / DVD Player / Transport mods, opinions

[Esque]

Cleaning out the attic I stumbled upon my spare Sony DVP-S7700. Bought it used for a bargain at some point, intended for spares if my primary one would burn out its lasers. Yes that's correct lasers in plural, one dvd one cd laser.

Well anyway, my primary unit seems to be going forever even with daily use. So it got me thinking, maybe do some "experimenting" with the spare one. Back in the glory days, there were companies modding players for better performance. Well at least, that's what they claimed. To my believe these mods often included:

- "audio grade" capacitors / better specced capacitors.
- added damping material.
- adding sockets like BNC / XLR / fancier RCA sockets.
- modifying or changing the power supply to a linear model.
- region mods for DVD's.
- removing muting transistors.
- adding a separate clock.

Obviously back in the day these mods all resulted in a "better" player compared to the original. Often times described as more open, more dynamic, more specious, better stereo image, more details, etc, etc, etc.

Fast forward to 2024, players and transports have lost their ground. defeated by streamers, running on life support before the lasers burns out.
But how do we look at these mods from a 2024 perspective? Are these mods the under-glow and spoilers of the audio community or is there actual sense in them.

Is my relic of a Sony DVD player used as a transport, going to improve from having its 25 year old caps changed with Nichicons? Are drums going to sound tighter from adding a layer of sorbothane to the copper chassis? Or was it all snake oil.

Would love to hear ASR's community opinion on this.

 

[staticV3]

Any mod that's worthwhile would have documentation from its creator, including data that shows the improvement.

If a mod is just "you do this, replace that, and it sounds so much better afterwards! Trust me."
then it's likely a waste of time and money.

 

[restorer-john]

- removing muting transistors.
- adding a separate clock.

Muting transistors can be (rarely) a cause of increased distortion. But generally that only happens when the muting transistors themselves have been damaged. I've had plenty of players where they have been the cause of trouble and even a few where removal made a large measurable difference. They are there to prevent large bursts/transients being output to your amplifier when discs mistrack, are bumped, when skipping fwd/back etc. They are controlled by the system IC to provide a flawless listening experience- why ruin that?

The clock can be improved only where the original was of poor quality and that is pretty rare. Also, just hanging some expensive clock off the interior of the player with a rat's nest of connecting wires can make things a whole lot worse. Again, measure before, measure after.

 

[DVDdoug]

Often times described as more open, more dynamic, more specious, better stereo image, more details, etc, etc, etc.

Very unlikely unless backed-up by measurements or blind listening tests. I don't expect any audible defects or differences from a CD player and I never trust poetic-flowery language. If you hear a difference, tell me about noise, frequency response, and distortion. (A blind listening test wouldn't be easy... First you'd need 2 identical units to confirm there's no difference. Then you could compare modified to un-modified.)