Review: Tube Research Labs modified Sony 900v

Hello ML fan club members. I have been waiting to write a post like this for the longest time. Before I move into the review, a bit of background information...

When we had the 'Gathering of the Geeks' (see twich54's thread) at Dan's house I was introduced to his modified sony player, done by modwright.com. I am fairly the modwright modifications were different than what Paul Weitzel at tuberesearchlabs.com performs. I want to say that Dan had a new clock put in and a few other odds and ends were changed around. His player is devoid of some of the common issues that sony players are known for - they tend to be overly bright and, at times, maybe harsh sounding.

Also, while I was Dan's listening party, I learned several very valuable lessons. I used to think that the speakers and really good amps/pre-amps will make most anything sound good. Sadly this is not the case. The source (both the player and the quality of the recording) are very important. We listened to many redbook and SACD albums, both good and bad, and his system will reward you with a terrific listening experience, but also reveal any flaws embedded in the recording. So I decided to upgrade the CD player first, before moving on to the more pricey upgrades (more on that later).

Paul modified a sony 900v that I got via ebay. It received raved reviews here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...3&openfrom&5&4

So following Dan's advice, I took the plunge. I mailed the 900v to Paul Weitzel and for $750 + shipping he made a few changes to the analog board, took out the IEC cable and made it so I can use an after-market power cord. Also, he disabled/removed the video inputs. I am guessing those circuits are active when the player is on and they can hinder the performance. Spike had an earlier post as to how and what the various 'modders' can change around. It's an excellent post and I would read that for more great background information.

On to the review!

Associated electronics:

Speakers: ML Aerius i
Amplifier: Sunfire Symphonic Reference
Pre-amp: Yamaha RX-V592 (it was my old integrated amp, and now my pre-amp)
Cables: Kimber Hero and Heartland ICs. Monster M-series bi-wire for the Logans.

Those in attendance: Erik (me), Dan (DTB300) and his daughter.

I allowed for ~100 hrs of break-in time for the 900v prior to the review.

I did some A/B comparisons between my Panasonic DVD RP56 and the 900v. It's not a bad player by any stretch considering the price. But the high end on the RP56 is a bit more accentuated in my opinion. I also think the music through the 900v is well...more musical. It sounds very balanced from top to bottom and when Dan and I listened to Eva Cassidy's Autumn Leave's track from Live @ Blues Alley, the highs were reproduced just fine. A good test for any CD player is to listen to a song that you know will challenge your system, or in this case, the sony's ability to reproduce her aria without rolling off the high end, or producing overly bright music so that your ears start bleeding.

The same could said about Mary Chapin Carpenter's 'My Heaven' from her Between Here and Gone album. What a fantasic record. Do yourself a favor and get this CD. You won't be disappointed. If you love female vocals, this is the CD for you.

Dave (twich54) played this song for me at his house a few weeks back and I thorughly enjoyed her music through his system. Again, compared to the Panasonic player, the modified sony provides a very balanced, and musical experience.

Sarah McLaughlin's 'Angels' is one of my all-time favs. I love this song-just her and the piano. Now, I must admit that the panasonic does a nice job here. The differences bewteen the sony and panasonic are rather subtle, with the former being a bit less bright. Dan has a specific tone, that he calls the 'Zzzzzssss' sound that singers make when saying words that usually end in the letter s. This was present with both players, obviously, but the Sony could reproduce it in a more gentle (can't think of a better term, sorry) fashion.

The final CD used in the comparison was Clapton's Unplugged Album. Well, you should be seeing a pattern by now. The sony sounded more neutral in that the Eric's voice in 'Tears From Heaven' was less harsh, or grainy, sounding and the sony was smoother on the next song, 'Lonely Stranger.'

Well there you have it. I wanted to write something up that didn't contain a ton of flowery adjectives that most audio reviews are known for. All in all, I am impressed with 900v and I highly recommend Paul Weitzel at tuberesearchlabs.com. To date, they have modified nearly 800 players and now I am among the long list of satisfied customers. In my opinion, CD players shouldn't add or subtract anything from your listening experience. Good players simply allow you sit back and enjoy the music without any unwanted harshness. Well recorded tracks are going to sound terrific and bad ones will be exposed too.

Paul enclosed some of favorite songs that he burned on to six CDs: Aerosmith, some Pink Floyd, some classical and jazz CDs (these are all compilations of a many different artists) and some really nice Billy Holliday songs. I haven't listened to everything on those six CDs yet, but Dan and I did enjoy a few of the tracks on the Jazz disc.

Thanks for stopping by and reading the review! :music:

eknuds01 said:

Also, while I was Dan's listening party, I learned several very valuable lessons. I used to think that the speakers and really good amps/pre-amps will make most anything sound good. Sadly this is not the case. The source (both the player and the quality of the recording) are very important. We listened to many redbook and SACD albums, both good and bad, and his system will reward you with a terrific listening experience, but also reveal any flaws embedded in the recording. So I decided to upgrade the CD player first, before moving on to the more pricey upgrades (more on that later).

Click to expand...

And this is what we are looking for in our setups and reproduction - play what is there without adding or subtracting. Bad part as Erik stated, when a recording is bad, it will really sound bad, but when they do it right, you will be rewarded with wonderful sounds.

Speakers: ML Aerius i
Amplifier: Sunfire Symphonic Reference
Pre-amp: Yamaha RX-V592 (it was my old integrated amp, and now my pre-amp)
Cables: Kimber Hero and Heartland ICs. Monster M-series bi-wire for the Logans.

Click to expand...

When I arrived at Erik's he has his system up and playing tunes. The initial thought of mine was a laid back type of sound coming from the music - not bright, not forward at all. The initial setup was Heartland from Player to Pre, Hero from Pre to Power Amp, and Monster to Speakers.

Later on, as we did a bunch of IC cable swaps from ones I brought over, we found once the Kimber was in place from the Player to his Pre that this was a better arrangement on his setup. The Heartland (Belden cable with Eichmann's) was placing its rolled off signature on the sound. The Hero's were a far superior sounding cable to the Belden's. So the initial rolled off type of sound I was hearing was nothing to do with anything else but the choice of IC's from his source.

Other cables brought over were JPS Labs Superconductor FX, DH Labs BL-1 II, Audioquest King Cobra, and Zu Cable Gede, and Erik had the Hero and the Heartland.

Cable Testing: Installation of IC's was from the new Sony Player to the Pre. The Sony player has two outputs, so changing between them was quick and easy just by chaning the source on the Pre, enabling us to perform a better evaluation of cables against each other. Remember, our results with the IC's were in Erik's system and in his room. Others could have different results with their setup and their rooms.

The JPS sound was tilted more to the low end, but had good vocals. The Audioquest was probably the worst sounding of all the cables except the Heartland. The DH Labs was the brightest sounding of the group. The Zu had the best overall sound from low to high. The Hero had as good midrange and high as the Zu but had a little more low end sound to it.

Out of all the cables we both liked the Zu and Hero as the best sounding. For myself, I prefered the overall sound of the Zu, but I could live with the Hero too.

I did some A/B comparisons between my Panasonic DVD RP56 and the 900v. It's not a bad player by any stretch considering the price.

Click to expand...

We never did a comparison of the two players with music while I was there. But the sound of the Sony player was very good for all the different types of recordings we played. On all the music we listened to for 4+ hours, there was never a sense "digititis" or that typical bright or over detailed stock Sony player sound, the player just showed off the recording as it was. It was a very nice sounding player in Erik's setup.

While the Aerius is not a CLS (as I own), the sound from the Aerius was extremely enjoyable to listen to. While I have heard the Aerius before in showrooms, I wondered how I would like it being used to hearing my CLS. I was one very happy audiophile sitting there listening to music from the Sony Player with the Sunfire Amp playing through the Aerius. It was a very enjoyable music listening day at Erik's - what more to ask for on a Saturday!!!

Paul enclosed some of favorite songs that he burned on to six CDs: Aerosmith, some Pink Floyd, some classical and jazz CDs (these are all compilations of a many different artists) and some really nice Billy Holliday songs. I haven't listened to everything on those six CDs yet, but Dan and I did enjoy a few of the tracks on the Jazz disc.

Click to expand...

From the few we listened to, there is some really great sounding music on these Disc's which Paul "gave away" a part of the player modification. I am not sure if Paul does this all the time, but it was a nice addition.

Thanks to Erik for hosting my daughter (she is my Audio Side Kick) over for the afternoon. Nothing better than sitting listening to music played out of Martin Logan Speakers.

Erik is well on his audio path, with a very nice sounding setup in the early years of his new "Audio Habit".

Dan

Dan,

I did the A/B comparison after you left. I didn't want to bother you with changing the disc(s) between the players every 5 minutes.

Thanks for the nice follow-up to our listening party! I was going to post another review about the cables, but you did a stellar job there. I concur with you on the Zu/Hero vs the other cables tested. In my system, the Zus and Heros has the best balance and clarity.

Now I just need a few extra pairs of Heros!

Erik

So guys, the Zu cables seem to be a winner in Erik's system, Dan do you concur with your set-up ??

twich54 said:

So guys, the Zu cables seem to be a winner in Erik's system, Dan do you concur with your set-up ??

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I am in the process of changing JPS to Zu in my setup. I already started this process before going over to Erik's - hence I had some Zu's for him to try out.

Bringing the cables over was a way for Erik to learn about how cables can or cannot make a difference in a setup and to what degree. As we know some people can hear a difference with cable swaps and some cannot. If was a good way for Erik to experience this part of our hobby.

I took everything out of the entertainment center so we could have easy access to the amp terminals and whatnot. At first I thought that was overkill because I thought Dan might only bring 1-2 pair of cables to test out. We ended up testing like half a dozen different ICs and each cable had its own unique contribution.

I owe Dan many thanks for letting me evaluate those cables. Now I have some idea of what to listen for!!!
Erik

eknuds01 said:

I owe Dan many thanks for letting me evaluate those cables. Now I have some idea of what to listen for!!!

Click to expand...

Yeah, the setup Erik had made things very easy to change cables and switch between them with ease.

Erik also found out that price does not always equate to a type of sound either. Each cable can add or subtract to a particular sound in your setup - like Roberto stated - mini tone controls.