Although I thought I would never do this, I have decided to replace my much loved Sony SCD 777ES. This had been upgraded, by Colin Yallop of Chevron Audio in Derby, with the Vacuum State Electronics (VSE) L6+ mods and has been taken beyond that by further filtering of the power supplies to the clock (again by Colin). I’ve also had the later, V2.53, ROM chip fitted and the laser assembly has been replaced in 2009. It comes with the original remote, box (although this has been used for shipping a few times and it is getting a bit worn inside) and user’s instruction manual. I gave the maintenance manual to Colin, but can get it back if you need it; I also have this in pdf. Colin has confirmed he is happy to support this machine for whoever buys it and I can recommend him highly and his VSE upgrade work was very favourably reviewed on TNT. [URL]http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/chevin_cdmods1_e.html[/URL] (note Chevron was called Chevin then) In offering it for sale I am assuming that the prospective purchaser is interested in the VSE mods ([URL]http://www.vacuumstate.com/[/URL]). (If you are not, it would be better to buy an unmodified machine as, although it is fairly straightforward, there would be some labour cost for a technician to return this to standard- and it would be such a waste!). There are some rave reviews of the Vacuum State mods and they have very loyal following- for example see positive feed-back. [URL]http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue23/vsei_level5.htm[/URL] (for Level 5) [URL]http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue39/vsei.htm[/URL] (for Level 6+) You can now go to beyond L6+ with an external “uber clock” that costs an additional £1,000, but Colin thinks his tweaks and additional filtering go a long way to close the gap. You will find quite a bit of discussion on VSE mods on Audio Asylum in the Hi-Rez forum, although some of the contributions should not, perhaps, be taken at face value. I cannot recall exactly what I paid for the modifications as I got to this level in stages (starting with a 555 which I took to 5+ before moving to a 777 and having it upgraded in 3 or 4 steps) when I was either buying other items or having other work done. However the second Positive Feedback review above lists the price for the L6+ upgrade alone as </body>,995 (or about £1,330 at current exchange rates); I had not thought I had spent quite that much, but looking at the bills I could find and making some estimates it may not be that far out. I assume anyone reading this will know about the SCD777 ES. It is essentially the same as the SCD-1 except it does not have balanced outputs (but VSE/Chevron can provide them) has a different case colour and a slightly different mains transformer. Its construction and architecture means that it is a dream for upgrading, which is why they are still so highly sought after. For those who judge HiFi by poundage it weighs 25kg! More about it here [URL]http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyes/SCD777ES/SCD777ES.html[/URL] It got glowing reviews when released, but to be honest in stock condition it is totally outclassed by the VSE modified player (IMHO etc) The condition of is very good overall, although there are some very small dings on the top- see 4th photo. I've hope these links work for photos. I can email these photos and others if you are interested Front [URL]http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz321/PandB2010/Sony%20777/IMG_0494.jpg[/URL] Side [URL]http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz321/PandB2010/Sony%20777/IMG_0499.jpg[/URL] Top and Remote [URL]http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz321/PandB2010/Sony%20777/IMG_0508.jpg[/URL] Dings on top (as usual photograhs either exagerate or underplay these sorts of marks. Suffice it to say that I had to look carefully for them an then get the right lighting for them to show up on the photo. [URL]http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz321/PandB2010/Sony%20777/IMG_0501.jpg[/URL] Last month (12th Feb) an inaccurately described, tatty, unmodified machine with the wrong remote sold for £1,100 on EBay (item number 220551567578). I checked with VSE and they told me that unmodified machines are selling for around 1,200 Euro on the mainland, which seems to confirm a going rate for the stock item. This is a chance to get a really serious level of play-back for sensible money; I’m replacing it with something that retails at ten times the price. It's too big for my second system, so it really has to go. Putting the two estimates together, I get something like £2400 to buy a stock second-hand machine and have it upgraded. However I realise that the “depreciation” on upgrades is far worse than for original equipment, so I’m looking for around £1,350 plus shipping. However I’d much prefer that it was collected rather than trusting it to a courier and this would allow the purchaser to check everything is as I say. I’d also be very happy to demonstrate it to anyone who is seriously interested. Offering this on a couple of enthusiast sites for few days first, as I really don’t want to have to make this my first sale on e-Bay(!). Happy to answer any questions.
