Impressions & Review (With Pics): Sony XA9000ES w/ Reference Audio Mods Modifications

Intro
After what felt like years of agonizing anticipation, I finally received my heavily modified Sony XA9000ES from Reference Audio Mods. Service was good, but the unit was slightly delayed by about a week over the initial estimate, though I understand these things happen. My unit was with RAM for 2 and a half weeks total, still very good turnaround time. Douglas Jesse was always courteous and very responsive to my (many) inquiries.

You may remember I recently auditioned the Krell SACD Standard CD player (see here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=192844&highlight=krell). The Krell retails for $4K and was my first real “official” high-end source I’d had in my own rig for evaluation as opposed to hearing it in a dealer showroom. I liked much of what it did, but it was lacking quite a lot of what I already got through my sacdmods modified Sony 555ES (monumental review here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52002 ). Overall, I preferred the humble upgraded Sony over the $4K Krell.

This comparison proved to me that the basic value proposition of modified players is basically sound: namely, that at a fraction of the price for a true high-end player, you can simply drop in better parts to a mass-market machine and achieve similar sonic results. You get all the advantages of the economies of scale that a major audio manufacturer can bring to bear on creating your base piece of mid-fi gear. In general, what largely enables the niche-market “high-end” companies to produce better-sounding machines (at a premium), is their use of much higher-quality components in their players, where the mass-market manufacturer has to cut costs in order to meet a cheaper price-point for the average Joe. When you choose to modify, you take a base player produced at a much cheaper cost than a small high-end maker could ever hope to match, and upgrade as much of its components as possible, and voila—instant champagne sound on a beer budget!

My previous Sony 555ES retailed at $1600 when new, I got one on close-out for about $700. The full sacdmods package for the player was $650. So, for my investment of $1350, I got a player that out-performed a $4K unit. Not a bad deal at all, I’d say.

In the past, I’ve owned another modified player, a Sony 333ES (predecessor to the 555ES) that had some modest mods done to it by the popular Modwright. Dan’s mods were a nice improvement, but the player was not nearly as good as Matthew Anker’s much more heavily-modified 555ES. So, after selling the Krell, I decided the best path for me would be to start with an even higher-end Sony base model and have still greater mods done to it than I had done to the 555ES.

So I chose Sony’s most recent top of the line SACD player, the XA9000ES ($3K retail), which I purchased used for $1300. Granted, this is hardly a “mid-fi” machine, yet it’s still shy of the real “high-end”, and there is still plenty of room for improvement over its stock components.

I then had $1395 worth of modifications (still not the full extent of what RAM offers) done to it. Most of the aftermarket mod-ers offer tubed output stages for their major modification work. I decided on RAM because their analog output stage is pure solid state. While I do like much about the tube sound, I simply hate almost all the extra baggage/hassles/anxieties that come with tubes. I also want to insure a more solid sound with good foundation for my R10s, so I’m less trusting of tube’s ability to provide that power and sound. BTW, RAM claims they can modify *any* player, but you may be a guinea pig if yours is the first of its kind. They do extensive mods very similar to those outlined here to the Eastsound player that was all the rage here a while back.

Below are pics of the player’s internals with descriptions of each of the mods.


Pics of the Modified XA9000ES
Here are some candid shots of the mods performed by RAM.

First, here is a pic of the player’s extrenals. It’s one sexy beast of a player, much better built than the Krell. The casework is quite heavy, and the player itself weighs 35 pounds! The FedEx guy struggled with it a bit.




Now let’s open her up and take a macro look at her insides:




Here’s a pro shot of the Audiocom Superclock 3, a special circuit that replaces the cheap stock clock (clock is almost impossible to see in the pics I took). Adding these aftermarket clocks (there are several on the market) is generally thought to be one of the best bang-for-the-buck mods you can do. Adding this mod ($295) greatly reduces jitter, and is said to yield a cleaner, more accurate sound, improving resolution, soundstaging, and ensuring the timing of the bits is as accurate as possible.




This is a pic of the power supply mods ($300). Here is a quote from RAM describing what they did:

Finally, the most unusual, and possibly most significant upgrade, an entirely new analog output stage made up of Audio Consulting’s Coupling Transformers ($700) and silver wire. (If you squint, you can see the Superclock 3 hiding behind them.) RAM does this same mod to all players they mod, regardless of price, including CD players that retail at $10K (though they use higher quality transformers for those). I won’t attempt to describe this mod, so here is what RAM says:

While I’m a layperson, and probably in no position to judge, the visual quality of the RAM mods aren’t quite up the immaculate and precise level of Anker’s mods to the 555ES, but to be fair, there’s a hell of a lot more room to make it pretty inside the 555ES than the over-crowded XA9000ES.


Day 1 Listening Impressions RAM XA9000ES
Coming soon!

 

Great job Mark. I look forward to the next installment.

 

Cheap stock clock? You are aware that the XA9000ES already had a very impressive ('superbly low' according to Stereophile) jitter level of 176 ps measured with the Miller Audio Jitter Analyzer? What improvement are you expecting/did the modifier claim (since there is no information on RAM's own site above the performance of this clock circuit)?

It would seem to me that this modification is aimed at player's with much higher (original) jitter levels than the XA9000.

 

Speechless...

Believe it or not, I'm finally at a loss for words.


This player is just amazingly good. I have to now go through the process of re-learning all my favorite albums, and re-learning how to think about and write about sources. I've got no real reference point right now, so I'm still getting my bearings.

SACDs on this machine are spine-tinglingly great. By far the best digital I've ever heard or imagined. I'm wandering around without a map I'd say.

Overall, the player is absolutely grainless, no "digital" signature whatsoever, it sounds eerily *real*, even on Redbook CDs. It has an almost spooky soundstaging capability.

My only criticism I can offer right now is that it doesn't *quite* have the same sweetly fattened bottom end of the sacdmods 555ES, but it ain't no weakling either. It's well within the realm of things that can change/improve with burn-in.

Speaking of burn-in, I'm at a loss for how this thing could possibly improve (bass excepted). It exhibits none of the usual nasties that get ironed out with burn-in. It's dead neutral, and beyond clean and clear. It sounds "done" but we'll see. I'm told it needs 300-400 hours of burn-in to reach its full potential. I can't wait!


P.S. It's such a relief to have a player that just *works*. Unlike most high-end machines that are ergonomic nightmares with all kinds of operating quirks, this player and its remote are responsive and fast. Everything actually does what it's supposed to do!

I'm not qualified to speak to this, so I can't really comment. I will say that I did decline to install the Superclock's extra dedicated power supply (another $350 bucks). If the clock's job is just to sort out the timing of the bits, I wonder how it's possible that improving its power supply could impact the sound, which RAM claims: "Brings larger, deeper, widersoundstage and more emotion/resolution/dynamics." Obviously Audiocom believes there is a sonic benefit to adding a dedicated power supply for their clock, but I won't pretend to understand how or why this works.

 

Mark,

Are you still planning on doing the Grado GS1000 headphone review?

 

Hi LeeS,
Yes, I've written up initial impressions of the GS1000, maybe you saw it. After I get a handle on my new source, I'll post a follow-up on the Grados.

 

Re: Speechless...

Clock (or oscillator) circuits can be susceptible to random changes in frequency due to temperature drift, microphony, or voltage fluctuation. The best crystal clocks will usually be mounted in a temperature controlled oven, mounted in some compliant unit, and will have a stable supply voltage. How susceptible a unit is to voltage fluctutations depends on the design. With pretty good rectification and filtering I would expect thermal and vibration problems to be more of a concern.

The reason for posing my original question is that the very best measured players or transport/DAC combinations have data-related jitter levels of about 135 ps (using the Miller test). Only a very small number of players return figures under 150 ps, and most (including many expensive, well-regarded models) have levels of a few hundred picoseconds. It goes without saying that you can find a lot of cheap designs with jitter levels in the nanosecond range! Now, with a starting figure of 176 ps there is little room for improvement -- assuming that the Audioclock can return something similar to the best measured figures of about 135 ps. So, as an observer, it would seem more beneficial to invest in improvement to the XA-9000's analogue output stage and power supplies than to change the clock. Without access to a number of identical players with/without the mods., it is, of course, extremely difficult to determine which are going to provide the most bang-for-the-buck.

I am convinced that the already high-level of performance of the XA-9000 can be improved with the correct modifications, I am just a little surprised that the modifier felt that the clock circuit needed changing, given the performance of the player in stock mode. That's why it would be interesting to see the measured performance before and after.

Still, it sounds (no pun intended) like you are really happy with the player, so enjoy it, and I hope it serves you really well (as the owner of an SCD-777ES and two XA-777ES models I have a pretty good idea of what you're going through right now! ).

 

Day 4 Note...

Well, either the player has hit a rough patch in its break-in, or I'm just starting to find some nits to pick. I'm told it needs 300-400 hours burn in, I have around 50 hours on it, so a long ways to go. I've noticed some sibilance, and a bit of a metallic sheen to it with some material. It sounds a bit like an agressive silver cable at this point. There's something slightly "off" about the tone/timbre. It could use some extra (i.e. un-natural but pleasant) warmth. It's insanely ruthless, cutting through the recording like a Ginsu knife, and I can't decide yet if it's maybe too much of a good thing for me at times.

Still, the dynamics are coming along nicely, it has an incredibly powerful, punchy sound with the drums, greater even than the 555ES sacdmods with Zapfilter. It's still not quite as fat in the electric bass department, but it's making gains. No denying the RAM XA9000ES is blindingly fast and nimble. It's a super-exciting, involving player, it's anything but dull and boring or polite. It could be a bit "too much" for some listeners I think, but just the ticket for others.

The background is pitch black. Noise floor is much lower than 555ES which was already impressive. The way the XA9000ES stacks 3 DACs per channel apparently lowers noise level by 3 or 6db (can't remember which), either way, a not insignificant amount. The output transformers in the RAM unit probably also help. In any case, many many little teeny tiny details I never knew were there before are revealed on my new player.

So, overall, I'm cautiously optimistic, and anxiously awaiting results of full burn-in.

That's very interesting, I never knew that. I figure the massive dual Sony R-Core transformers, plus all the other power supply mods I had done should give the Superclock 3 plenty of clean juice either way, so I'm not too concerned about it.

 

Mark,

Not to veer off topic but I listened to the GS1000s at TommyTunes place and was very impressed. Tom has some terrific music collection as well.

 

250 Hour Impressions

Wow, so I went through all kinds of fire drills, air-raid warnings, duck-and-cover exercises with this player. I admit I panicked early on after the initial euphoria subsided. I went back and forth through positively *endless* hours of A/B-ing against 555ES Hot Rod at all stages of burn-in. My opinion of the RAM XA9000ES ping-ponged almost daily. I love it, I love it not...

This player is so radically different from what I've heard so far, I was at times at a loss for how to perceive it. It made me uncomfortable at times. This has been a MAJOR adjustment for me.

There can be no doubt that the RAM XA9000ES sounds very different from the formidable sacdmods 555ES. I've come to know and love and trust the sacdmods 555ES over 4 years of heavy use. My brain had grown well accustomed to its presentation (brain fully "burned in"), so it seemed to be "right" (or the devil I knew at least), where the XA9000ES sometimes sounded "wrong". The 555ES defined my impression and feelings about all my music for all that time, so that's a lot to overcome. Over time, however, I've come to see that the RAM XA9000ES is not "wrong" so much as "different".

I've had to go through serious de-programming from the 555ES to adjust to the XA9000ES' presentation. I've had to re-learn a lot of my favorite albums. This process is still on-going.

The RAM XA9000ES is really like a laser that slices through your CDs, letting the chips fall where they may. If the CD/SACD has flaws, get ready to experience these flaws under a microscope. This differs from the 555ES's love of everyone and everything it touches. *Nothing* sounds bad through the sacdmods 555ES; incisive as it is, it still imparts a forgiving warmth to everything that makes mediocre recordings sound OK. The RAM XA9000ES is absolutely RUTHLESS and forceful in exposing inferior recordings.

The RAM imparts a very individual characteristic on everything it plays-- different recordings sound radically different. Whereas the 555ES makes everything sound roughly the same-- quite good, even if not always spectacular.

At times I thought the RAM XA9000ES was "bright", or even "aggressive", but it turns out, it's only as "bright" as the the recording it's fed. So many modern CDs are way too bright, as anyone knows who frequents Steve Hoffman's forums. The XA9000ES with RAM mods gives them nowhere to hide. That obviously cuts both ways.

The RAM XA9000ES is unbelievably "clear", "crisp" and "sharp" of foucus. It leaves no digital bit on the table. It has dynamics to burn. The first thing that will strike you is the sheer SCALE of the music. Everything is friggin' HUGE. DEEP and 3D. Personally, I've never experienced this so-called "exaggerated" soundstage I've seen sometimes complained about at times on these forums. For me, there's just no such thing as too much soundstage, too much air, too much dimensionality-- I'm a sucker for it and I fall for it every time. The RAM XA9000ES really scratches that itch very satisfyingly.

The RAM XA9000ES has an almost impossibly "black" background. Where is the noise floor on this thing? You'll never hear it. CLARITY is the key word with this player. The 555ES sounds hazy and grainy by comparison.

I thought at first that the sacdmods 555ES had more bass, but with burn-in, that's no longer the case. The RAM XA9000ES has so much pure signal to deliver, it has immense slam and heft, that carries over to the bass as well.

This piece strikes me as a polarizing love it or hate it item. For me, I have had to adjust-- I can clearly recognize it's giving me so much more music and information. But because it lacks some extra added warmth, it's not the kind of thing you'd gravitate to automatically, until you adjust and start doing A/B's like I did.

OK, all that said, I'm going to be experimenting with interconnects and maybe power cords. I suspect that Virtual Dynamics interconnects could impart a little extra warmth and bloom without losing the resolution and dynamics, so I'll follow up later when I've got them in place...

 

Hi Gary, I've got the Black Sand Violet power cords, and Michael Wolff Silver/Gold/Carbon ICs. The thing is, these cables are every bit as ruthless and revealing as the XA9000ES. They are dead neutral, ultra high-resolution, with insane extension at both ends. Having them on the XA9000ES may be too much of a good thing. But I'm not sure. I do really love them, and it took *forever* (dozens of cable swaps) to find them.

Still I'm thinking of starting with some Virtual Dynamics Nite II ICs and possibly a Nite II power cord. Those cables have this rich tonality, added body and warmth, really sumptuous tone/timbre, and may be just the ticket to balance it out.

 

Excellent Review Mark thanks!!!

I have an XA777ES that was modded by Modwright and I love it. I had looked into the RAM mods as well, I'm glad to hear that you like them! My player is the best digital I've ever heard as well, so I certainly know where you're coming from when you say that.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

Mark,

I have found that Cardas Golden Reference cables both on AC and interconnect work well with the XA9000ES in auditions.

I'm planning on trying the new Norse lineup from Nordost soon as well.

 

The Component That Wasn't There.... Final Thoughts

The Component That Wasn't There.... Final Thoughts
My RAM modified Sony XA9000ES now has around 500 hours of burn-in on it, RAM recommends 300-400 to reach full maturity. I would say it fully hit its stride around the 450 hour mark or so.

A week ago I switched the power cord and the ICs to Virtual Dynamics Nite II and David respectively. I'd owned many earlier Virtual Dynamics products in the past and had liked them a lot, but had upgraded and found others that worked better with my previous source. I had a hunch that the VD cables would be just the ticket with the RAM XA9000ES and I was not disappointed.

Their cables have in fact been significantly upgraded in the various iterations they've gone through since I last owned any of their stuff. As always, they are still insanely thick and inflexible, 10-gauge copper surrounded by dampening material to prevent vibration, you really have to wrestle with them to make them conform to your gear. It's well worth all the hassle, though.

Yes, VD employs a lot of, let's say, "unconventional" science in their designs, and they have lots of features that will raise eyebrows. Still, there certainly aren't any other cables on the market like them, and to what degree the magnets, the cryo treatment, the heavy guage copper etc. affects or doesn't affect the sound, I don't know. The proof is in the pudding, and these cables sound great. Natural, full-bodied, substantial, firm and solid. They strip away digital glare and leave you with a much more realistic sound, less "hi-fi" and more like reality.

Now, if I paid full retail on the cables, it would have cost close to what the used Sony with mods cost, but if you buy used, you can get them at a significant discount. VD is going to be introducing a whole new generation of products in January, too. Should be interesting to see what they pull out of their hats next.

That's a long way of saying that IMO, the VD cables are a necessary compliment to the RAM mod-ed XA900ES.

I'd like to describe the sound of the player with the VD cables at great length, but I can't. After burn-in, and properly cabled, this player just evaporates. Every time you think you have a handle on its sound-- "oh, it's too this, or not enough that", just pop in a new CD and you realize that's totally wrong and misleading. The key thing with this player is that it makes every disc sound unique and different (which it is!); you hear the recording exactly as it is. If it's too bright, you get too bright. If the vocals are recessed, you get recessed vocals. If the bass is too fat, you get too fat; too thin, you get too thin. You get the picture. There's nothing I can really pin on the player, or attribute to it; nothing that stays consistent from CD to CD.

Its downright eerie how different all my CDs/SACDs sound. This takes some getting used to. You have to re-learn everything you thought you knew like the back of your hand. This player is the Bruce Lee of digital-- "the best style is no style". It's like water, conforming to whatever vessel is carrying it.

However, it's important to point out that the RAM XA9000ES does all this without being analytical or clinical, or cold. It doesn't make everything sound inferior, or make everything sound romantically sweet or warm or lush. It just is.

Yes, it's highly resolving, and black of background, and great at soundstaging, and all that good audiophile stuff. But only so long as the recording itself provides those things. It will deliver.

Do I feel the player has any limits? That's hard to say. You don't know what you don't know. You can't know if there's more to be had from your shiny silver discs until you've actually heard it. The rest is just pure specualtion.

I can say, that for now, I'm very very satisfied with this purchase, both the player and these cables. I think it would please a lot of folks on this board. Thumbs up!

 

Mark,

Many thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed set of reviews. It's great to hear that you are enjoying your new player, and I'm very happy to read that you were prepared to give the time to adjust to its sound as so many people get used to one type of presentation and immediately reject anything that doesn't sound like what they are used to.

Now, throw the hi-fi magazines away and keep feeding this thing more and more software!