Ric asked that I share my thoughts on his latest upgrades to the Sonica. I purchased mine slightly used about 4 months ago and used it for a couple of months before sending it in for the modification. I have had it back about 3 weeks and have been letting the mod further burn-in and also having recently purchased and Ifi Galvanic 3.0.
My system is built on an I5 PC With dual boot windows 10 using Jplay. I boot windows and all of my audio based software from a Micron P300 100GB SLC SSD. I have three software programs I run to optimize windows and Jplay. Audiophile Optimizer 2.20 Beta 5, Fidelizer 7.9 and Process Lasso latest itteration. I run Jplaystreamer with Minimserver locally set to my usb flash drives. This in order to run Windows Hibernate on a single PC. I run then naked and damped, as Ric suggests, which noticeably improves the sound. Upplay is the control point application.
I much prefer the Paul Pang V2 dedicated USB card to any port on the computer. I am currently running it with a 5V Ifi iPower which came as part of the Ifi Galvanic bundle. This actually outperforms my DIY kit 5V LPS. I am still running the same in a 9V version on my W4S Recovery Reclocker. I have been using my own Diy USB cables which use Neotech Silver/Gold OCC wire,from Zenwave Audio. Its Daves custom wire, a bit better than the std. Neotech. I am finicky but on a tight budget. I try to squeeze every ounce of sound out of my audio dollar.
I also run Dave's power cord to the Oppo and his D3 interconnect to my Neco V5 Portable Headphone Amp. I have been through 3 versions of Neco Beymanns Marvelous little Amp. This thing is flat amazing and I will not be replacing it until i can afford and find a suitable Single End Triode headphone Amp.
The Frankenheiser as an SBAF member called my Sennheiser HD650's are extremely modified and tuned. They sound remarkable and Clobber the Paradox, now enigmatic audio, Slants, which I quite enjoyed while I had them. I have less than half as much money into them as I did with the Slants. I had Dave at Zenwave build me a headphone equivalent of his D2 interconnect.
The Sonica stock outperformed my Ifi DSD micro Dac quite easily which I expected. I had sent my Ifi to another modder for upgrades and well lets just say it all fell through and I lost money and my DAC!
I had considered the Gustard but Ric convinced me the Oppo was the way to go.
It is very neutral stock. Nothing is really wrong and it does establish a very high level of performance at the price point. It is a touch dynamically constricted. Bass is reasonably extended and tight with a good sense of texture and detail. PRAT is quite good but could perhaps be better. Not that much better in this regard to the Ifi. Highs are natural but not really airy or substantially extended, but are still there and quite satisfying. Midrange is excellent and blends well into both frequency extremes. No bloat or brightness. Soundstaging is good. It favors width slightly to depth and height but still presents a good balance. Depth was not that much better than the Ifi. Height and
overall size of things was definetly better.
The W4S improved things across the board and got rid of a fair amount of the dryness and a bit of thinness that I was not previously aware of. Bass tightened up more. Soundstage noticeably improved as did layering of the soundstage. Focus was quite improved. You could also certainly hear the noise floor drop. The proverbial blacker background etc.
All in all a very pleasing level of performance and value for the dollar.
Ric created substantial expectations as I spoke to him about just how good the mod could be. I followed his website and talked to him every couple of weeks. Suffice it to say he more than exceeded what I expected for $600,(now $700). Mine also does not have the latest clock mod. But after Ric does a few more things he is talking about I will send it back for that upgrade as well.
Without further ado, the improvement is stunning. The Sound is so much more open and dynamic, PRaT is hugely improved. The system disappears in a way I have not previously heard. Bass is far more solid and textural with gut wrenching visceral Slam when the recording calls for it. The stage is dimensional in all directions; Wider, Deeper, Height is proportianal. There is far more layering and Images float more readily in their own unique space. On multi tracked Pop stuff you can easily hear where things exist seperately and are then packaged together. Live recordings are staggering in that you sense you are in the audience of the venue. I love this quality and have never heard it to quite this degree before. On my "Orchestral Manuvers in Dark Live at the Liverpool Museum' this just makes listening to the whole album imperative whenever I put it on. "I am at the concert.' The other one is my "Lindsey Buckingham Live recording at Beverly Hills Theater.'
Well this is all that autosaved and somehow lost other content...so will post more
later.
Happy, Listening,
jgwtriode