Well Onkyo's "luxury line," Integra, has a new player, the 10.5 coming out. Supposedly that should be right up there with the 5900, 59AVi, NS999ES, and 8400.
The Integra 10.5 should smoke the 5900...on paper. User reactions on this and its Onkyo brother, the 1000 have been very positive thus far...albeit both pieces are very expensive.
Another question - does anyone actually OWN one of these top-shelf aforementioned players that have been modified by modwright or another one of those reputable companies?
They certainly look gorgeous (with their little tubes up top), but for upwards of $1000? Whew. That's almost as much as the player itself... What is the sonic benefit? Opening up the soundstage a tad? Aren't we reaching the point of diminishing returns here? Or maybe I'm just another one of the doubters who will have their world turned upside down upon listening to one of these modded units?
I mean I'm just confused because if these products (Denon 5900, Pioneer Elite 59AVi, Sony NS999ES, Marantz 8400, etc.) are the result of a big companies millions of dollars poured into R&D, plus countless hours of labor, and are their TOP OF THE LINE players to boot, don't you think the quality of them would be absolutely superb out of the box? These mod companies make it sound like we're only hearing 50% of their performance without modifying them.
The 47AVi has similar sonic characteristics to the Denon 2200. The Denon 2900 blew both out of the water when tested....didn't get a chance to try the 59AVi, but based on how the 47AVi sounded, and the glowing revies the 59 was getting, I'm sure the two sound nothing alike.