Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Modified Denons

Hi everybody!
www.underwoodhifi.com claims exceptional results (@ the same "level" of prices!)using hi-performance modifications to Denon 2900,2910,3910,5900 (universal players).
Any comment would be very much appreciated.
Regards,
Octavian

I'm sure they do claim exceptional results. Given their business model, it would be silly not to.

Octavian, my comment after reading the Underwood material is that it's pure hogwash. Those Denons and most other modern players provide audibly flawless reproduction of discs. If there was any modification(especially involving a tube analog output stage)which actually resulted in an audible difference it would by definition be a degradation of the result achieved by the audio engineers who originally designed the player. This is yet another instance of the urge to tweak in an increasingly untweakable world.

I posted on this in these forums before but in a nutshell, modifications can benefit the video side of a player but the audio side although I'm sure it's an improvement? would be incredibly difficult to hear versus a stock player. I still think it's silly to take something that company X spent tons of money on with designing, engineering etc and then have a third party company say it's junk and it needs $3500.00 worth of upgrades done to it to make it what it should be!!!!! Even the improvements to the video side are somewhat comical. If you want better video quality, buy a better DVD player!

My biggest gripe with mods are the charges that some try to get. There is no justification for them based on the cost of the parts, labor involved etc. Keep in mind that when someone say's "The factory op amps are cheap" it's kind of funny. They replace an op amp that cost's Denon $.50 each and replace it with something that you can buy from any electronic wholesaler for $1.00. Is that a significant upgrade worth $1000.00? Does the fact that Denon pays $.50 each for each op amp make it cheap or is it the fact that Denon is buying boat loads of them and thus gets decent pricing? Would Denon intentionally build a player with cheap parts on purpose? If they do why do their players constantly win awards and are considered by most to be leaders in the DVD player market? Also keep in mind that a lot of these mods you can do yourself in about 15 minutes. Not all of them but there are some out there. The big one that sucks people in when it comes to amps is cap upgrades to increase from say 60,000 uF expansion to 120,000 uF total capacitance or whatever. Most people can do this them selves if they are that worried about............and I bet you ten to one, nobody can tell the difference before and after.

At the end of the day, buy a decent player and enjoy it. If you want the best of both worlds (Audio / Video) get a mainline Denon that will do it all well. In today's market place there are a ton of manufactures out there making truly exceptional players that don't need a dam thing done to them.

Now please don't take this as me taking shots at the company you provided a link for as it's not. It's a shot at the entire market itself.....................

At the end of the day there are people out there who will pay thousands for these mods and will go home and say "Man what an improvement" To each there own but I would bet you the farm that I could park my Denon 2900 beside a modified Denon 2900 and we could A/B until the cows come home and you would not be able to pick out which is which. I know as I have done it in the past. I wanted to hear better, but there was nothing better to hear.

Some more refreshing clarity. Nicely said NH.

Well said. Some people just feel the need to tweak, but at the prices charged by vendors one could easily buy an entirely new component. Exorbitant to say the least.

If you have the wherewithal to do such upgrades yourself, why not? You can satisfy your curiosity without breaking the bank. Me? I think I'd screw something up inside my Denon. I'll leave it the way it is. If it ain't broke. . .
Well, at least until I'm more proficient at soldering.