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Upgrade -or- not to Upgrade, there is no Question"
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Stock high-end audio gear still leaves
a lot to be desired.Even ultra high end models simply fail to
come close sonically to the same model which has been upgraded.

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Linn Schulte Modified CD12 CD Player
I just got my Linn CD12 back from being upgraded by David Schulte
of The Upgrade Company and thought I would quickly share my experience. Right
out of the box, without any burn-in time, I am simply ecstatic with the outcome.
All aspects of the CD12’s performance have been significantly improved,
and I mean significantly. In fact, I have aborted my plan to buy a new SOTA
CD Redbook player.
I have to admit I was a major skeptic about this whole “upgrade thing”.
I was concerned that the process might improve some aspects of performance
at the sacrifice of others. Or worse yet, that I would get the unit back and
it wouldn’t work. But after reading about other Audiogoners experience,
particularly Clement Perry’s recent experience having his Reimyo upgraded,
I decided to take the plunge.
The Linn CD12 is a CD Redbook only player and was introduced in 1999. It
is no longer in production although Linn has a stockpile of parts to service
their installed base indefinitely. Mine is the latest 24 bit model and I have
had it for over three years. On a scale of “literal versus lyrical”,
the CD12 is strongly biased in the lyrical direction and for many years was
a reference in CD Redbook playback. The CD12 has brought me countless hours
of sonic bliss.
However, in recent years new players have emerged that matched much of the
CD12’s musicality while improving upon it in terms of resolution and
dynamics. In my opinion, the CD12 has always been a touch laid back in those
areas. And so many audiophiles have moved on to newer players, particularly
those that wanted CD Redbook and SACD/DVD-A capability in one unit. Being
at that cross roads myself, I began an intensive review of all the current
reference level SOTA CD Redbook players. As I have a Linn Unidisk v1.1 that
I use for SACD/DVD-A my focus was only on CD Redbook which comprises the majority
of my CD collection anyway.
Well, as we all know, there is no shortage of great choices out there to
chose from at all price points and that’s great for us as consumers.
But the new SOTA units I auditioned, while improving on the CD12 in some areas,
were just not enough of a “slam dunk” to get me to switch. So,
being at a bit of an impasse, I ultimately decided to take the “upgrade
plunge”.
While I know there are many excellent, well regarded equipment upgraders
in the market, I decided to go with David Schulte of The Upgrade Company because:
(1) he had lots of very positive references, (2) he had successfully upgraded
other high end CD players including Clement Perry’s Reimyo and (3) he
had upgraded a CD12 previously and had a clear plan of what needed to be done.
David’s approach is not to modify the unit’s original circuit
designs, but rather to upgrade selected components that offer superior sonic
performance versus the stock components. Further, he has other tricks up his
sleeve to deal with the deleterious effects of resonance/vibration and EMI/RFI.
But, he rightly keeps all of that to himself, as I would if I were him as
that is his intellectual property and competitive advantage.
David was an absolute pleasure to deal with. As I wanted to minimize downtime,
he called me when he was ready to operate on my unit. I overnighted the CD12
to him and he got to work. He explained the spectrum of upgrades he offers
and the pricing and I ultimately decided for the “full monty”
wanting to push the CD12’s performance as far forward as possible. I
found David to be a no-nonsense guy. He knows from 20+ years experience what
is worth doing and what isn’t and I never felt he was trying to push
fluff on me. We talked several times by phone and exchanged several e-mails
throughout the process to let me know how it was going. At certain stages
of the modifications he would listen to the player to see how its performance
was changing.
So today I got the unit back, plugged it in and let her rip. After I got
my chin up off the floor, wiped the big grin off my face and listened for
about an hour I got on the phone to let him now how pleased I was. As I mentioned
at the outset, every aspect of performance has been improved immensely. The
inherent musicality of the CD12 is fully intact, but the noise floor has been
lowered significantly which is allowing new detail to emerge that was previously
masked; resolution throughout the range has increased dramatically (particularly
at the low end) and micro and macro dynamics have improved immensely as well.
And David tells me that the Blackgate capacitors (which were part of the upgrade)
improve with burn-in, so performance should only get better from here.
One of the things he told me is that most of his modified CD Redbook players
outperform SACD recordings. I said okay when he told me that, but didn't really
believe it. Well, I just listened to Patricia Barber's Modern Cool which I
have on SACD and Redbook. And, well, he was right, the Redbook version sounds
better. I'm not saying that will be the case on ALL recordings, but it was
a revelation for me that Redbook could sound that good. In fact, the CD12
performance has now reached a point where vinyl will probably go by the way
side for me. I'm sure SOTA vinyl is still better than what I have now, but
what I have is sufficiently good at this point that I will skip the hassle
of vinyl.
Well, I’m now a converted skeptic and next week I’m sending David
my Runco DLP processor (his modifications are equally effective on video circuitry
I’m told) and Unidisk v1.1 universal player for the upgrade treatment.
Bottom line, upgrading components is probably not for everyone, but based
on my experience the price/performance ratio of upgrading versus buying new
is compelling, particularly in the area of digital.
Happy Listening,
Earflappin
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