Upgrade Company Awarded 2011 PFO Writers' Choice Award

For excellence in upgrades to the Marantz PM15S1 and SA15S2

View Award

 

 

 

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The 8th Annual Positive Feedback Online's Writers' Choice Awards for 2011 - The Best of the Best!
Upgrade Company's Signature Edition Marantz Modifications

I realize that my writer's choice award for 2010 was for products that I hadn't officially reviewed till the January/February 2011 issue. Give me a break. I am slow to turn in my handy work. And besides being that the Dave's are both teachers, I would never use the standard issue excuses of blaming the dog for eating my homework or I left it in my friend's locker. That would be worse than just being late. But seriously, I strongly feel that one of the best things I have done in regards to an audio purchase in as many years that I have been in this beautiful hobby of ours is to send my gear to The Upgrade Company to have Mr. David Schulte perform his Signature Edition modifications to my gear. Or I should say, work his magic on it. With the permission of our esteemed editors, I would like to vote The Upgrade Company for a second year in a row as one of my top choices for the Writers Choice Award. The reason is, for the upgrade they performed earlier this year to the original modifications. When Mr. Schulte emailed me earlier this year to let me know he had some further improvements to make on my gear I was skeptical. I didn't think there could be improvements on the improvements they already made to my stock Marantz amp and CDP. But believe me they did the seemingly impossible and improved an already great modification further. Way further in my opinion. Please stay tuned. I am working on getting the details in as soon as possible.

Read the review here

Francisco Duran

 

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The Upgrade Company - Taking my Marantz PM15S1 Integrated Amplifier and SA15S2 SACD to a Whole Another Level
by Francisco Duran

As far back as I go in this great hobby of ours, I can remember reading reviews of products that were just short of reference quality in one or all areas of performance. Comments like "bass performance approaching but not quite up to the very best" or "the treble is just shy of the top echelon" were bestowed upon less than stellar gear. I've often wondered, what makes that product just shy of the very best? Is it the circuit design, parts upgrade, or both? Or to put it another way, what would one have to do to make that product compete with the very best?

Fast forward a few years to a fledgling Greater South Bay Audiophile Society, getting to know many audio manufacturers in those early years, and listening to many of their audio products. Dave and Carol Clark and a few more of us turning a lowly GSBAS newsletter into a full-fledged magazine, audioMusings, and the gear kept coming. Later audioMusings partnering with David Robinson, Positive Feedback Online was formed to bring a Forum for the Audio Arts to the Internet. To say that I have listened to my share of top quality hi-fi gear would be an understatement, through these ventures and audio shows and friends' systems. I have also had systems made up of some fine gear through the years.

But the itch to improve things didn't stop with just swapping gear out in my system. Early on I felt that a very good way to improve one's gear, without selling it and replacing it with something more expensive, was to have it modified. Down through the years I have had modifications done to select pieces of gear in my system, some of them done by very competent people in this industry. Each time the modifications improved the sound, but not always to the degree that was expected. One good argument I ran across in favor of modifying one's gear one night on the Internet was titled, "Go Forth and Modify" by Brad Mitchell in the Internet magazine Affordable Audio. It was in their issue 35 from November 2008. In it Mr. Mitchell gives a rational explanation of how your audio dollars are divided up by manufacturers. He also mentions the fact that "There are many high priced products out there that use mediocre internal parts." This was not only shocking to learn but a bit of a let down. One would think that when you spend your hard earned cash on very expensive gear, you are actually getting the very best.

Fast forward again a few years later and I found myself in a similar situation. It was time again to upgrade my system, but based on past experience, the urge to upgrade my gear through modifications was strong. Enter David Schulte, owner of The Upgrade Company of Harbor Springs Michigan. The Upgrade Company is one of those companies whose name pops up when you are doing an Internet search late at night for the best company to modify your gear. In fact, I can't remember how I initially came across them. I can tell you that from the very first time I contacted them, January 25, 2008; it took me almost three years to make up my mind and have my gear "upgraded" by them. But I am getting ahead of myself. The reasons for my procrastination were many, and typical of the incredulous audiophile. This doubt was partially brought on by the claims made on The Upgrade Company's website. In it they state that the modifications they do actually bring gear to state-of-the-art status. They also mention the fact that there are many cheap parts in expensive high end gear that are also found in cheap and cheerful entry level gear. I have read that last statement before. Okay, but would the bass be improved? Would the treble sound better? Will it sound more musical? Will it be worth my money? These and many other questions swirled in my mind as I did my research.

The Upgrade Company goes a long way in easing your concerns when you shop through their website. Several comments caught my attention firmly concerning their policy. They have over 28 years experience in upgrading and modifying high end stereo and video equipment. Customers are offered a 14 day in home trial of their work. There is a 100 % buy back guarantee, five year parts and labor warranty on customer owned gear that they modify. The clincher for me, and one that answered one of my many questions, was that once your gear is upgraded, it will compete with (stock) "cost is no object" models. And as if that is not all, some of the comments directed to David Schulte would make any audio dealer green with envy; "Dave makes a total commitment to you when you are one of his customers," "his service is second to none," "Dave is a true gentleman," "as stand-up guy as I've come across," and "may god bless you always!" Oh yes and he answers his phone calls and emails promptly, my quote. When was the last time you said anything like that to your audio dealer? And still I hesitated. After all, how could anybody take my treasured stock from the factory audiophile gear and make it better. Please read the website for more details on their policy. Okay, stay with me guys, just one more thing. Just a few of the many customer comments about their work; "the entire presentation of my digital playback is state of the art," "best move I ever made," "worked his magic on …," "outstanding work," are just a few of the many positive comments about their work. It was sounding better and better in favor of a mod.



First here is a little history about the gear that I finally sent to have modified. The Marantz PM15S1 integrated amplifier and SA15S2 SACD player were purchased late in 2009. Partially due to a synergy with my speakers, and the features appealed to me. After many years living with a couple of bare bones passive line stages, the list of creature comforts on the PM15S1 was inviting. The Marantz gear is definitely in the smooth sounding camp as opposed to the razor sharp and clinically neutral. Coming from the Marantz Reference Series, that pedigree is undeniable with their solid build and handsome looks. I was told by very reliable sources that the smallest amp and SACD player in the Marantz Reference Series line sounded every bit as good as their bigger brothers, except for sheer power in the amp and a few missing creature comforts from the CD player. Seems it had something to do with a smaller parts count. Besides they are less expensive and my speakers really don't need massive amounts of power to get them to open up. The 80 WPC of the PM15S1 fit the bill. This forty pound integrated amplifier came equipped with an MM/MC phono section, headphone amp, record out facility, speaker switch, (for headphone listening), tone controls and WBT speaker binding posts among other niceties. The CD player can be used as a stand alone DAC or transport. The amplifier is about as far away from my previous hair shirt audiophile approved system as you can get yet far short of an all in one massive HT amplifier. I love it!

I wrote in my review of the stock SA15S2 that it has "a smooth yet detailed demeanor," "natural sounding midrange," and "realistic tonality." But as nice and smooth as it is, it often times leaves one wanting for more musical excitement. Although very nice sounding, this combo was lacking transparency, dynamics, some inner detail, and a bit of that sonic excitement. I also said in the review that "SACD's sounded way more natural…making regular CD's sound more hi-fi and electronic in comparison." But they were smooth! What I didn't know at the time was the dramatic change to the Sonics the modifications would bring. In fact early on, I almost sold the amp. It seems it just wasn't as good a match for my Tonian Labs speakers as I thought. Turns out I didn't have enough break in time on the amp. I have a habit of switching out amplifiers in my system quite often, and I didn't realize I didn't even have fifty hours on the amp. After over 200 hours it finally broke in and opened up… to a degree. Or so I thought.



Finally after a year of debating, researching, and thinking about it, I sent in my Marantz SACD player to The Upgrade Company for an upgrade. Sending your gear to them is painless. Owner David Schulte is very communicative with his customers, his turnaround time is fast, and the prices are very right. Their work is exemplary. During the break in and since, I have literally run the juice out of both units and they work perfectly. The amp gets a lot more time in than the SACD player. My amp is on and running at least six hours a day on weekdays and at least twelve to fourteen hours a day on weekends. And it runs cool as a cucumber, which is another reason I bought it. But I am jumping ahead of myself. After getting the SACD player back and breaking it in and loving how it sounded, something wasn't quite right. I felt I still wasn't getting the full mettle of the new modification. Feeling that the rest of my system was at fault, off went the PM15S1 amplifier to Harbor Springs, Michigan. One concern I had was that the amplifier wasn't the latest model of PM15. I have the PM15S1, and as soon as I bought it, Marantz came out with a new model, the PM15S2. David Schulte assured me that the difference between the stock units wouldn't be a problem after his modifications. In between this though, David emailed me to say that he has improvements that he didn't implement in the SA15S2 mod the first time and if I could send the CD player back he would upgrade it for the cost of shipping. Getting the CD player back there was definitely an improvement in background silence and cleanness I thought couldn't be improved. Now back to the amp, when it came back and I had some hours on it, I felt my system was a lot more complete sonically with both units modified. Now for a bit of a painful confession: Since the amp has been back, I have rarely listened to my Margules tube amp. Now don't get me wrong, the Margules is a very fine tube amp. But the mod to my integrated really closed the solid state/tube gap sonically in my system. Another gap that closed to quite a degree is the SACD/ CD performance. There is not as big a difference as before the modifications in sound between the two formats. Go figure.

The first aspect of the sound quality of these units post mod that should be mentioned is their lack of noise artifacts. That is, lack of grain, glare, hardness, brightness, smearing, or veiling. After break in it was the absence of these sonic negatives that first got my attention. The absence of these artifacts alone should be well worth the admission price to anyone who lusts after good, clean, musical reproduction. Listen to just about any sanely priced audio products, and one will find one or another of these artifacts in the sound. In fact you would have to spend up to the four to five figure price-tag to get as clean sounding as these components. I would emphasize here that in this instance, clean absolutely does not equate to a bright, thin, or clinical sound. Full, solid, clean, and musical make better descriptors. This is one amp and CD player that can really track what a recording sounds like. Similarly they are very revealing of component changes in one's system without the sound becoming merciless. Can a component sound both accurate and musical at the same time? Yes, very expensive components (sometimes) and a modified unit from The Upgrade Company. Of course, matching these components at this level requires skill and patience. When doesn't it? I got very good results with my resident JPS, Soundstring, and Music Wave speaker cables and interconnects. But I got excellent results when using two Kubala-Sosna Emotion power cords and one pair of Elation interconnects. This excellent wire transformed my system to a degree I didn't think possible. With the KS wire the system exhibited a greater degree of inner detail and extension at the extremes, yet stayed grounded in musicality. The music just seemed right and snapped into place. Of course the wrong wire or mismatched ancillary in a high end system will wreak havoc on the musical reproduction. The Marantz combo has the benefit of being matched at the factory then improved upon by the modifications. But just popping them out of the box and pressing play doesn't guarantee success. The fact that top notch cabling brought out the best in my components is telling of the quality of the modifications and proof that working and tweaking them will return worthwhile rewards.

Of course this lack of artifice brought out the best in the music. My Tonian Labs TL-D1 speakers are very accurate transducers. That area of sound that we are most sensitive to, the midrange, sounds very accurate and naturally realistic. The vocals are solidly placed, and the images are holographic and stable when warranted by the recording. A favorite composition by the guitarist Pat Metheney is "The Longest Summer" on his Secret Story CD. To quote another PF writer, Bob Levi, the piano on this cut sounded "mellifluous." The piano sound jelled out into the room with ease. What deep bass my speakers can reproduce, down to their 42Hz limit, sounded very well controlled, taut, agile, and very natural with this song. This brought out musical texture and tonality, not only in acoustic instruments, but those qualities can be heard in electric instruments as well. Does the electric bass guitar have texture to its sound? I felt so in many recordings.

 

One night while doing a comparison of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon LP, (Gramophone Company Limited LP), and SACD (Capitol), some interesting things were noted. In track No. 4, "Bells," the accuracy of timbre of the bells and the depth of the soundstage and location of individual bells was very good on the SACD version. When we played the LP, we felt my phono set up reproduced timbres that were more realistic and relaxed sounding. Although the SACD pulled off realistic depth of stage, it just couldn't escape CD's old inherent trick of flat individual images. This was more noticeable on the piano and vocals. It was absent with my phono rig even with my cheap and cheerful Blue Point No. 2 cartridge. The phono stage reproduced a stage and images that had better natural sounding depth and space. Now don't get me wrong, CD reproduction from this player is first rate. But it seems no matter what you do, you can't escape digitals "perfect" sound. When I sent my amp in to The Upgrade Company, I asked David Schulte to go all out on the phono section. He must have taken my advice because this built in phono section in a $2000 integrated amplifier punches way above its weight class. I have been living with it quite happily.

I mentioned this amp has tone controls in my Positive Feedback Writer's Choice Awards comments. Audio purists need not fret, they can be bypassed. Before the mod, engaging the tone controls caused a slight distortion to be heard. This noise defeated the purpose in using them, and made me want to turn them to direct mode. After the mod, this distortion was simply not there. I like the inclusion of this feature on this amp. Used sparingly they come in handy on more than a few recordings. The mod really changed their performance, using the tone controls gives no sonic penalty. To me it sounds more like a cable change when using them than a circuit that is mucking things up. And lets not forget the improvement to the built in headphone amp. The modification to my amp was a complete one, and these features for me are justification of the convenience of my integrated amp.
The treble performance blends seamlessly with the rest of the frequency spectrum. It is extended and revealing, yet naturally realistic. Swapping out my Tonian TLD-1 speakers for a pair of new NSM MS-100's that are in for review brought out a stark difference in each of these speakers top end sound. The differences between these two speakers are most noticeable in the treble region. The silky smooth performance of my modified Marantz combo again easily showed the poor quality of some Pretenders' CDs as compared to Milton Nascimento's Nascimento CD or the Ana Caram Collection on Chesky Records with either of these speakers. The strength of these modifications is to reproduce highly revealing sound yet be very musical. I have to say that listening to the Pretenders' CDs was more enjoyable than just about any stock CD player that I have heard them through.
If you want a lesson of what high quality bass, midrange and treble can sound like, just listen to the CD Blues Groove by the Jimmy McGriff and Hank Crawford Quartet on Telarc. The wide open dynamics, the growl of McGriff's Hammond B-3, the fine texture of Crawford's alto sax, and all blend together, spread out wide before me. This modified Marantz combo easily displayed this high quality recording with ease. I could go on and on with musical examples.

It is sometimes easy to slightly loose sight of reality when one is enthusiastic about a product or service they feel strongly about. I have made a similar statement last year when I reviewed this very SACD player, only it was stock. The stock Marantz components are very good audio products, but the modifications to my gear were highly successful. The modifications transformed two slightly sweet, warm, and competent sounding products to ones that will compete with others costing many times their retail price. But are they the best out there? Are my amplifier and SACD player "state-of-the-art" status? Let's just say that David Schulte and company have pushed these units to their sonic limits in regards to their inherent design. And let it be said here that these upgrades are very thorough. Over 150 parts were changed in my CD player alone, plus high quality shielding and damping were also used. The Upgrade Company has many years of experience modifying the great high end stereo and video products of the world. Many fantastic statements from their customers are made on that website. But these claims are from extremely satisfied customers with many years experience in this hobby who have trusted The Upgrade Company with their mostly expensive high end gear. The proof is in the listening. Count me in with their many satisfied customers. To say that I am pleased with my decision to finally send my gear in is definitely an understatement. I am very satisfied with the outcome. If you are tired of riding that expensive audio merry-go-round or you have a treasured component you would like to have improved far beyond what you think could ever be, have a serious look at this company. What have you got to lose?

The Upgrade Company
David J Schulte
1222 Walkabout Lane
Harbor Springs, MI 49740
www.upgradecompany.com
1-231-242-0946

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The 7th Annual Positive Feedback Online's Writers' Choice Awards for 2010
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue52/awards.htm

Beginning at the end of 2003, PFO established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that Dave Clark and I had heard in our own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award.

An excerpt from PFO Staff Reviewer Francisco Duran:

"In August of last year I bought a Marantz PM-15S1 integrated amplifier and SA15S2 SACD player. What partly prompted this move was that I have been a hair shirt audiophile for too long and wanted some creature comforts in my musical pleasure. Another part of the motivation was that I just wanted a simpler system plain and simple. The PM-15S1 integrated has a built in MM/MC phono section, head phone amplifier and tone controls, yes tone controls which I proudly use on occasion or when the spirit moves me or when a recording is just too bloody awful to listen to un-aided! My SA-15S2 doesn't play DVD-A's, DVD's or Blue Ray's but I don't care. I didn't want an all in one player due to their notoriously slow response time in loading a disk. The reason I am adding these two units to my best of the year is not necessarily for the two Marantz units. It is because I had them both modified by The Upgrade Company. It took me literally two years to decide to finally have this company actually do modifications to my gear. When I first started researching them, I didn't even own the Marantz gear. After reading and reading their website for the umpteenth time, I could have literally sent them any piece of gear from any high end manufacturer under the sun and they could improve the sound of it. I picked the Marantz gear for several reasons. The first reason(s) I have stated above. Secondly the stock units worked well with my speakers. Thirdly I didn't want an expensive bare bones audiophile unit from a small company that would send me back to hair shirt land. Well folks as our esteemed editor, David Robinson have stated in the past, "I don't drive stock". Well, I don't either. I have had modifications done to some of my gear down through the years but never and I mean never have they sounded as fantastic as the modifications done by David Schulte of The Upgrade Company. Qualities such as deep powerful and impactful bass, images that sound as if they were carved out of stone, excellent coherence, accuracy, natural richness, lack of grain, glare, harshness or haze on a level I really haven't experienced before regardless of price. In fact this small paragraph is not enough space to do justice to the level of quality and craftsmanship that has been implemented to my gear by The Upgrade Company so a full review is in order. I have plenty to say about this subject so stay tuned!

 

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"The Absolute Sound" magazine reviewer's opinion on his Esoteric DV50S upgrade
A MUSICAL TRIP THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS WITH
"THE UPGRADE COMPANY"
By Max Shepherd

Having a CD player modified is not cheap, so the question is, is it worth it? How much of an improvement can I expect to hear for my money? Once I began considering having my Esoteric DV-50s modified, I tried to find the answer to that question. I read numerous testimonials on modifiers’ websites, some threads on Audiogon, lots of results of “shoot outs”, and a few reviews of modified CD players. They were interesting, but inconclusive. What I was looking for was an article that tried to directly answer my question by comparing a modified player with a stock player. I never found such an article, but decided to have David Schulte at the Upgrade Co, modify my DV-50s anyway. And I decided to run my own A/B tests. Toward those ends, I sent David my DV-50s, and I arranged to get a virtually new DV-50s on an extended loan.

When I got my player back in about 10 days, I set about burning it in. To avoid any accommodation effect during this burn-in period, David recommends a 300-hour burn-in, I did not listen to the player for 2 week, which was not as hard as it sounds, since I was out of town for most of that time. I just disconnected the interconnects, put in a CD, hit play and repeat, and walked out the door. Finally, though I was ready for some critical listening. With the modified DV-50s on the left and the stock DV-50s on the right, I put a CD in the stock player, sat back and began to listen. I have always liked the sound of the DV-50s. It has a good soundstage, relatively wide and deep; much better resolution of low-level detail, including timbre and decay, than any other player I have had; realistic dynamics, and it is musical.

I listened for a while, and then switched the power cord and interconnects over to the modified player, and listened to the same tracks. Did the modified player sound different? Yes. Was the difference significant? Yes. And of course, the real question: Did the modified player sound better? Absolutely. The difference was in fact stunning. The modified player sounded like a completely different component. Think sonic CinemaScope for those of you who remember that cinematic projection system - wide, deep, detailed, color saturated, and engaging.

David is, understandably, reluctant to discuss in any detail what his modifications entail. However, he apparently replaces parts in several of the subsystems of the player, including, most importantly, the output stage. Consequently, David’s modifications change virtually all aspects of the musical presentation. But the most immediate difference that I heard between the stock player and the modified player was in the sound staging. Here the differences were just short of breath taking. David’s modifications took the already impressive soundstage of the stock DV-50s and not only increased its overall size, which one might expect, but more remarkably, they gave the soundstage a palpable sense of volume and depth, and a sense of “you are there-ness” that was more than just an increased sense of size. More about this later.

The improvements in sound staging were particularly apparent when I listened to Handel’s "Messiah", originally performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and transferred to CD by Chesky Records, and pieces from the "Essential Tallis Scholars", a choral group. In both recordings, the modified player created or more accurately, reproduced a compelling sense of the enormous halls in which the music had been recorded, halls that were clearly much wider and deeper than my listening room, by projecting those halls beyond my listening room walls.

And with the changes in the sound staging also came a remarkable improvement in both resolution and clarity, changes that undoubtedly contributed to the sense of the deeper soundstage. Strings, whether on piano, violin, guitar, or standup bass, sounded fuller, rounder, thicker, and more natural, as the modified player more accurately revealed what I came to call “the belly of the string”, but what was actually the timbre of the string being played. Piano strings lost any sense of glare and simply sang. Violin strings were taut and true in tone and timbre. The strings of Ry Cooder’s bottleneck guitar jangled and rattled as he played with U.M. Bhatt on his Mohan Vina. This increased resolution and realism was not limited to just string instruments. Oboes in Handel’s "Water Music" were hauntingly reproduced, and again were true in both tone and timbre. The trumpet that introduces Mahler’s 5th Symphony thrust forward as a three-dimensional, brass instrument floating against a black background. Lyrics were also clearer and more easily understood. And vocalists generally emerged as more three-dimensional figures than simply flat voices against a background.

In addition, the modified player eliminated virtually any vestige of congestion that had existed in the center of the soundstage. This had the effect of sharpening the sense of both the individuality and the placement of the performers within the sound stage. And when the performers were presented as individuals, clearly distinct one from another, their individual performances blended together harmonically as music rather than smearing together as coalesced sound. I found this to be a particularly wonderful difference because it brought a sense of realism to the music that I had never experienced with my system before.

Yet another difference that I heard with the modified player was the change in the tempo of the music. I cannot explain this difference. However, I suspect it is related to the greater resolution of the modified player, including the fact that musical transients were so much crisper and cleaner. Regardless of the source, the effect was as if the music was being played slightly faster or with a more upbeat tempo, but without any distortion to the time signature of the music. The modified player just made the stock player sound sluggish. The other result of this difference was that the modified player made the music sound much more realistic, engaging and exciting. The music just grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go. I had never had that experience with my system to that extent before. I noticed this effect initially when I was listening to Keith Jarrett’s “The Out-of-Towners”. I found that I was consistently being drawn into the grooves that Keith Jarrett was laying down in song after song because of both the difference in the tempo of the music, and the elimination of a slight sonic haze that stood between the performers and me.

This last difference is well worth noting. David's modifications so greatly improved the resolution of the player that they essentially eliminated a very slight haze or lack of clarity that had previously overlaid the music. While the presence of this almost gossamer like veil was slight, its elimination was quite significant. Eliminating this veil was like lifting a curtain that hung between the performers and me. And when this unobstructed access to the performers was combined with the startling musical realism that the modifications created, and the cavernous soundstage presented, it was like stepping through the looking glass and into the emotional reality of the music. Piece after piece became more exciting and engaging than I had ever experienced before with my system. I listened enthralled for hours, and still do.

Finally, one more observation and a caveat. First the observation. The differences that I heard between the modified DV-50s and the stock player when playing Redbook CD's were equally as apparent with SACD playback. And the caveat. While I had the stock player on an extended loan, it was not an indefinite loan. I ultimately had to return the stock player before I could conduct any A/B comparisons of the video performances of the two players.

Circa 2006: My system consist of the following: the modified DV-50s, Aesthetix Calypso line stage with Mullard NOS long plate 12 AX7 and Amperex white 6922 tubes, McIntosh MC 402 amp, Dali MS-5 speakers, a modified Salamander Synergy Triple 20 stand, and Shunyata power cords, cables and interconnects.

NOTE: The Editor at The Absolute Sound Magazine in the end decided not to publish this review for fear of losing his advertising dollars from Esoteric Corp since the review would be seen as:

1. An endorsement and admission that aftermarket mods and upgrades are valuable and effective.
2. An admission that Esoteric uses cheap parts and can be much improved upon for far less money than the manufacturer charges for "Upgrades" and "New models".

The reality is sadly that high end audio magazine Editors care more about money then giving consumers the truth.  If the Editor had been honest, perhaps The Upgrade Company would have been advertising each and every month in The Absolute Sound magazine from 2006 to date.  We do not reward shady, bad behavior.

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Ed Momkus' take on
The Upgrade Company-modified Esoteric P70 CD transport/D-70 DAC digital system
(and a note on a modded EMM Labs CDSA SE)
OR
“Get on the phone or computer and call or email David Schulte right now!”
December 2008

The Upgrade Company
1222 Walkabout Lane
Harbor Springs, MI 49740
Tel. 231-242-0946
URL: http://www.upgradecompany.com/
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

See Momkus' Online Review

THE 'MAD MODDER'

Well – not really – I was just looking for a cute subtitle. I’ve never met David Schulte, but I’ve spoken to him on the phone and corresponded via email.

When you talk to David on the phone, it becomes evident that you are speaking with a sincere and earnest man who has a passion for taking good audio equipment and making it sound better. However, if I hadn’t previously spoken to him over the phone and only communicated via a few emails, I probably would have imagined David Schulte to look like Einstein, but with the crazed look and maniacal laugh of a demented audiophile genius. After all, who else would send you an email at 2:00 AM to let you know that the mods are done and that the modified equipment is being cooked in anticipation of shipment in a day or two?  I’m sure that the engineers over at Esoteric, Mark Levinson, Krell, Acoustic Research, and the other audiophile manufacturers are dedicated, hard-working music lovers who work late when necessary, but not at 2:00 AM….

THE UPGRADE BUG STRIKES

I have had the Esoteric P-70 transport and D-70 DAC for three and a half years now. The pair together was Esoteric’s “statement” redbook digital five years ago. About fourteen months ago, I began to get the itch to upgrade to an SACD player. However, even though I’d purchased many hybrid SACDs under the assumption that I would one day purchase an SACD player, I had yet to hear an SACD player that sounded better playing redbook than the P-70/D-70. Moreover, I discovered that the P-70/D-70 combo often sounded as good or better than the SACD layer of those hybrid discs. This included several good SACD players (such as the Music Hall Maverick and a Marantz DV8300) and even some top-tier players (such as the EMM Labs CDSA SE player – more on this later). Not content to simply wait for someone to make something clearly better, I set out on a search for potential mods.

Modificosa Nervosa

Once I started seriously thinking about modding my Esoteric P-70/D-70 combo, I also started to research various “mod shops” and their philosophies. The first thing I discovered was that no one had attempted to mod the Esoteric P-70 or D-70. This made me very nervous.
If I owned a Lamborghini Diablo and wanted to improve horsepower and handling, I would sure as hell want to have it done by someone who had done it before. Alas, I was going to have to trust someone to do a good job the first time. Given the relatively unique technology used in the P-70/D-70, I wasn’t comfortable with anyone who was going to radically change the guts of the units, after all I liked the P-70/D/70 and was attracted to The Upgrade Company/Dave Schulte’s philosophy of substituting better parts. I also saw that David had modded many other Esoteric products and I figured that his experience with those other Esoteric products would help. Finally, I’d come across the names of The Upgrade Company and David Schulte in the past when reading reviews of various mods, and the comments were very positive.

Mod One and Mod Two

I decided to “interview” David and exchanged some emails and spoke with him on the phone. He was very confident and reassuring, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. Months went by while I continued to avoid making a decision. Finally, in March of 2007, I took a deep breath and sent the Esoteric pair to David along with $3,000 ($1500 for each unit). He got them on March 20th and shipped them back to me on March 26th. I reassembled my system and deliberately avoided listening for 24 hours.

When I finally sat down for some serious listening, I could immediately tell that the performers were larger and that the soundstage was deeper and more layered. This is unusual in my experience. In the past, “larger” performers invariably meant a more forward soundstage perspective. It was the first time that I had this experience when upgrading any component. I was quite satisfied with the value I had received, since added soundstage depth had been one of my primary goals in getting the units modded.

Two weeks later, I received an email from Dave Schulte which surprised me.

First, he had liked the Esoteric P-70/D-70 system so much that he went out and bought one. Second, he had been playing around with his new P-70/D-70 and had found a whole new series of mods that would elevate the combo to yet another level. Finally, he said that if I would just send the units back to him again he would perform these additional mods at the parts’ cost and not charge me for the labor. I was very impressed with Dave’s offer, but I had some downstream components I had in for review and couldn’t send the Esoteric combo back just then. “Besides”, I thought, “how much more improvement can you squeeze out from an already cream-of-the-crop component?” I liked what he had done and was reluctant to part with my babies a second time.

Three more months went by, but Dave didn’t give up. He again reiterated his offer to do the additional mods for just the parts’ cost. Finally, in July I gave in and sent the P-70/D-70 back to The Upgrade Company right before leaving on vacation. As before, David Schulte got the upgrades done promptly, but he also called and asked me if I’d also like to get the combo’s fuses replaced and upgraded with Hi-Fi Tuning fuses. I previously had great success with upgrading my amp fuses and would have also upgraded the fuses in the Esoteric combo, but they were located internally, so that you had to disassemble the units to replace them. I told him to go ahead.

Let’s go Live!

Let’s get to it. The Esoteric P-70 and D-70 took a few weeks to fully break in the new components, but the change was immediately evident. The improvements I noted before were much more obvious. First, the soundstage was even deeper and more layered. Second, the performers were not just larger, but they sounded more natural and created the impression of being more fleshed out.

In addition, and quite incredibly, both the lower bass and the upper treble became more extended and more detailed. I was particularly surprised by the improvement in bass, because the Esoteric P-70/D-70 was particularly good at rendering bass – in fact, the best of all the players I’ve heard.

All of these individual improvements stood on their own, but the real benefit was their cumulative effect. I had never heard, or should I say felt, an all-digital/solid state system to sound so immediate and “real”. I’m not saying that the modified Esoteric P-70/D-70 sounded “rich” (it did not, nor did I want it to). I’m not saying that it would sound equally “real” in a different system. I am saying that in my system, the modified Esoteric P-70/D-70 was finely balanced on that razor-sharp dividing line between richness and accuracy and produced music the way I hear it when it’s live in an excellent acoustic venue.

An encore with a CDSA

This experience was plenty to convince me of The Upgrade Company’s high quality work, but I should also tell you that Dave sent me an email seven months ago stating that he had performed mods to a EMM Labs CDSA SE, and if I would know anyone who might be in the market for one.

As it turned out, I had just been asked by a client to recommend a top-tier player. I had actually told him that he’d love the CDSA for classical, but that in my prior audition in my system, he’d be disappointed with its performance on rock and roll. He loves bass; in my opinion, the CDSA I’d compared to my P-70/D-70 just didn’t have it. Dave’s email specifically stated that he had corrected the CDSE’s “light” bass, so I called my client and told him that if Dave says it, it’s a good risk.

My client’s listening room was still under construction, so he asked me to hold the CDSA for him for two months. When I put the unit into my system, I could immediately hear the CDSA’s renowned clarity and airiness, but now the bass was visceral without losing any PRAT or dynamics. More evidence of the value a knowledgeable “modder” can add to your system.

CONCLUSION

Lo and behold, I received another email from Dave last week indicating that he’s found another mod that he says will upgrade performance of the P-70/D-70 another 25%! Based on my past experience, how can I not do it? I’ll have to wait a month or so to complete evaluation of speakers I’m reviewing, but I’m definitely going to do it.

Based on this short review, you’d probably guess that I recommend The Upgrade Company and David Schulte for your upgrade needs. Well, you’d be right – and in spades! My experience was very positive. If you’ve got any of the components that is on Dave’s mod list (check his website and email him), send them to him for some amazing improvements. If, like me, you have something he’s never modded before, send it to him with confidence. You will not be sorry.