The Upgrade Company has earned an "A+" Rating

The Upgrade Company
David J. Schulte, President
1222 Walkabout Lane
Harbor Springs, MI 49740
1+231.242.0946
MrHiEndAudio@aol.com

Acapella Audio Arts

Acapella Audio Arts

Black Gate Standard
The Upgrade Company has plenty of Black Gate capacitors in stock, although they have been long discontinued.
They are still "State of the Art" & "The World's Best" electrolytic capacitors in many circuit applications.

Black Gate Capacitor Explanation

The Strain Gauge Cartridge
patents pending

"Now with one giant leap, your strain gauge cartridge has leapfrogged the finest moving coil cartridges... I was completely stunned...."
(Ijaz Khan M.D. Mid-Atlantic Audiophile Group)

"To Upgrade -or- not to Upgrade, there is no Question"

Read More...

"Own the very best!"

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.

More....

The Upgrade Company
David J. Schulte, President
1222 Walkabout Lane
Harbor Springs, MI 49740
1+231.242.0946
MrHighEndAudio@aol.com

Marantz Testimonials

Unsolicited Customer Testimonials
The majority of our testimonials were emailed directly from the customer on their own merit. Some are merely excerpts from online posts, used with the customers' permission.

NEW August 14, 2009

Dr David Pritchard's Marantz SA11S1 Testimonial

I recently had my Marantz SA11S1 SACD/CD player upgraded by David Schulte of
the Upgrade Company. Since I am not a professional audio writer, here is the bottom line:

Yes it is definitely worth the money to have The Upgrade Company upgrade the Marantz SA11S1.
I attended the International Head Phone Conference (CanJam2009@ Head-Fi.org) in Los Angeles
during Memorial Day weekend 2009. There I had the opportunity to hear multiple high end CD/SACD
players using my personal headphones: Sennheiser 650's, Ultrasone Edition 9's, and my
Denon 5000 phones. I auditioned the high priced EMM LABS players, the new Marantz SA-7 and a lot of other players. I preferred the sound I get out of my Upgrade Co. upgraded Marantz.

The dramatic improvement in the sound of my upgraded Marantz player has extinguished any possible "upgrade-itis" I had. The Marantz SA11S1 has always had the reputation for a warm sound.
Now the bass has a much better precision quality to it. There is no hint of digital glare. I just find myself hearing and enjoying the music. I no longer think about the source of the music. I just enjoy the music. All aspects of the upgrade went smoothly. The unit was out of my hands a total of 14 days. I had no problems scheduling or communicating with David at Upgrade Company.

Would I do it again- Absolutely!

David Pritchard
Audiogon Member ID "Davidpritchard"

Father Michael Carroll's Marantz SA11S1 Upgrade Testimonial

My initial impression of my upgraded Marantz SA11S1 is nothing short of Hallelujah! When I got this player I figured it was the best one I'd ever have and it sounded better than anything I'd ever owned before. When I unpacked my "Upgraded" Marantz today and played Van Cliburn playing the First Piano Concerto of Tchaikovsky, something happened that was a first for me. I felt the music. I didn't just hear it, I felt it. The vibration of the strings in the piano was palpable to me. Next was Renee Fleming singing Bel Canto arias. I've heard that the test of a player is how it handles female vocals. This is where it gets interesting - I listened to the arias and the hairs on my neck stood up. This has only happened when I heard music live in performance. It has never happened to me listening to a SACD. This is as close to live as I've experienced music. Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem is on now and here again something amazing. I've sung this piece in concert performance. I've heard it at Carnegie Hall and wept at the beauty of it - I had tears in my eyes today. So, out of the box, without being anywhere near burnt in, I'm thrilled by what I'm hearing.

Thank you, David, for the genius of what you do. May God bless you always.

Fr. Mike Carroll, NY

Audiogon ID: Mikeacarroll

UPDATE July 27, 2009

Ok, David...
This is getting freaky. When you first upgraded my player, I wrote and told you that it made me feel the music-as if I were in the hall at a live performance. Well now, after your latest upgrade I feel like I'm in the orchestra pit. The other day when you called me to tell me about the new improvements that were available to your 2 year old Signature Edition upgrade, I honestly thought that there wouldn't be much difference but was I ever wrong.

My Signature Edition upgraded Marantz SA11-S1 sounds absolutely stellar for pennies on the dollar. If that isn't the apex of customer service someone please tell me what is.

Thank you again, David for making my music come even more alive.
Father Mike Carroll, NY

Dave,

This email is long time coming. With 1st impressions being so positive,
I still wanted to wait to see if the luster of your "SE upgrade" would diminish
with long term listening since January of 2009.

Well let me tell you that my Marantz DV-9600 just keeps getting better.
I wasn’t prepared for the overall impact that I was hearing. The
soundstage extended well past my Von Schweikert VR-5 HSE speakers. The
layering of depth was equally impressive, and it is clear to pinpoint
the sound of each instrument.

Everything just seemed to get bigger. The bass was very tight and
controlled, gone were the irritating high frequencies, and that
luscious mid-range was right there in front of me.

I guess the best complement I can pay you is that I listen a lot less
to my LP’s and I own a VPI HRX turntable that cost about $12,000.00.

Keep up the great work Dave!

I’ll be sending you my Sony Blu-Ray player soon!

Thanks

Paul Guezze, NY

December, 2008

I owned a "modified" Marantz SA-8260 SACD player that was "modified" by another aftermarket outfit with the Superclock 4 and optional power supply. Some are under the false impression that hot gluing in "SuperClocks" is the next best thing to sliced bread. Wrong.

At first I bought their claim hook line and sinker. Once I got my new Marantz 8260 Super Audio CD player home however, I always felt it was an under performer, that there was more on the CD I was missing. It was maybe 2%-3% better over stock. Even after letting it burn in.

Eventually I gave Upgrade Co a call to see what they were all about and now have a Marantz CD-17MKII plain standard CD player that has been "upgraded" by the Upgrade Co and it blows the doors off the "modified" 8260 SACD player w/ the high dollar SuperClock 4 +optional clock power supply. Proof positive those little "add-on" clocks" corrupt the sound more then they help. The hot glued on "clocks" some "modifiers" resort to are expensive and totally misleading. Cobbling more wiring and unshielded loose floppy wires to connect the clock does more harm then good.

As I understand it, the Superclock's timing is all thrown off and corrupted by the time it traverses all the new unshielded wiring and circuit path length.

I did A-B compare my new upgraded Marantz CD-17MKII, after it had about 300 hours burn-in time on it, to a stock Esoteric X-01 Limited Edition an acquaintance of mine owned. To both of our surprise, the upgraded Marantz was not only missing nothing but actually excelled in the areas of sonic weight, depth, lack of grunge and digititus, greater extension and transparency, slightly better detailing and dynamics, it threw a "bigger" sound stage and was much more musical and accurate to both our ears. Clearly there is something to the parts quality and trade secret approach The Upgrade Company offers. How else could a ten year old Marantz CD-17MKII standard CD player beat the pants off Marantz's 10 year newer highly touted SA-8260 SACD player?

07-17-07
Reverend Brian Byrne, Ohio

UPDATE: OCTOBER, 2008

I am a repeat customer of David's, having had first my Marantz DV 8300done, followed by my Aragon 3002 amp, then my Musical Fidelity A3/24 DAC, after which I purchased a Genesis Digital Time Lens that David had previously upgraded. My system was sounding fine, thank you very much, when David suggested I should send the DAC and Time Lens back to him, he said he has found new things to do to make them better. What an understatement that turned out to be! I received the two units about two weeks ago, and my newly acquired analogue front end has not had a single moment of duty since. Red Book cd now sounds superior to SACD. When I play a cd, I am now listening to the music, not my system. Experienced audiophiles will know what I mean by this... sheer enjoyment of music, not nitpicking your system and wondering what can I do now to make it better. What this improvement has done is to point up the value of the work Dave has done on my Aragon amp, and Marantz universal player. It has also shown me how good my speakers are, (Dynaudio Contour 5.4's), and the rest of the system. I just read review of the Esoteric DV 50s that David upgraded for a Stereophile reviewer. Everything that was said about the Esoteric can also be said about my digital front end, and need I tell you about the price differential between the two? In short, I cannot recommend David's services highly enough. The two items just re-done at his recommendation, he did for a very nominal fee. Knowledge is not a static thing, and he is constantly learning new ways to do things better, and he wants to share that dividend with his customers. The man cares. I am just an ordinary blue-collar man, not a fat cat with big pockets, so to have the performance I have at far less than the price of a new home is significant to me. I would be willing to speak with potential customers, just ask Dave for my number. By the way,I am not affiliated with The Upgrade Company, in fact I have never met David, in case you were wondering.
Enjoy,
Dan Thomason

*NEW! August 2010
Review: KRELL 400Xi Integrated Amplifier Upgrade

by David Borda