DAC chips replaced with PCM63P-Ks. Modded with THS4031 I/V opamps and AD8599 buffer opamps; Panasonic FM bypass caps right on power pins. Cardas RCAs, Elna Silmic output caps bypassed with MKP1837s. Discrete dc-coupled output stage next.
Rotel RCD-855
Highly modified. Schottky 11DQ10 diodes, rbroer discrete output, Tentlabs XO clock on Pinkflea board w/2 direct DAC BCK clocking.
Pass Labs Aleph P
Aleph P that I replaced my previous Counterpoint SA5.1 with. Nice piece. I had built an Aleph P clone, and liked the sound of it so much, I bought a real one.
Odyssey Audio Stratos
Very nice power amp. Mine is currently a Stratos Plus with the 120000uf capacitance.
Von Schweikert Audio VR-4 mkII
I still like these speakers.
Kimber 8TC
9ga equivalant speaker cable, braided, teflon insulation. Terminated with Postmasters.
I also used a THS4032 for IV and AD8599 for a Sony DAC out analogue stage.. Unfortunately, as time is now, they are only supplied by +5V and -7V power rails... I bypassed them with Rubycon ZA 100uF to GND // 0.1uF to GND C0G 1206.. I used very high quality parts for the feedback circuits, and sony circuit layout was already well set up for fairly high speed opamps. Everything is implemented correctly I believe, save for low power supply voltage.. I find the sound to be good but not spectacular. I'll get a link to photos..
I do all my own mods and make some of my own boards(former technician, now engineer).
The Von Schweikert VR4 Gen IIs are the first update of his original VR4s. I've owned them for around 10 years.
As for the two CDPs/preamps, the Counterpoint pre was my previous (and I just put it up for sale). I replaced it with the Pass Aleph P. The Rotel 855 was my original CDP; I had always liked it, but thought there was more performance to be had in the output stage particularly, but also the clocking. The 991 came up for sale a couple of years ago at a good price. Current mods are the replacement of the factory NE5534s (I/V stage) and the OPA2604s (buffer/SE-balanced conversion) with THS4031 and AD8599 respectively. These are not drop ins, particularly the THS4031, but required extensive bypassing with 100uf FMs right on the power pins, etc. It sounds much better now, but the 855 is still slightly better. I am going to build and implement a discrete I/V stage; will probably retain the AD8599s for the buffer/balanced conversion portion, but may try transformers here. I'm still in the decision phase :)
