The Upgrade Company's Oppo mods?
- Thread starter KLH007
- Start date
NorthStar
New member
Why did you erase your post Julian?
NorthStar
New member
Hello Northstar
I noticed you are from Canada. I am as well and have had great success with TUC despite the paranoia/negativity that I read before doing business with them. Smooth transaction and great product. I realized none of the negativity was from people who actually tried one of there upgrades. I do understand some of the suspicion created by not disclosing any details of the work being done, but if I had an innovated way of improving the sound of a component, I think I would be reluctant to reveal the details.
I have an Oppo-105 SE upgraded by TUC and love the results. Some people suggested my comparison of stock vs Upgrade player is useless without a blind study listening test. Maybe I would agree with this notion if the differences were small. The differences are huge!! My brother had a stock player and we compared my upgrade to his stock 105 and his mouth dropped. It took all of 30 seconds for him to appreciate the improvement and this was only half way through the required 600 hour burn-in time required for these upgrades. I just laughed to see his reaction to the improvements...it's that good. When my budget allows, I will be purchasing an upgraded pre/processer through TUC.
I was not interested in joining these blogs, because of some of silliness I have read, but I felt it necessary as a happy customer to speak up for a great service the Upgrade Company provides.
I noticed you are from Canada. I am as well and have had great success with TUC despite the paranoia/negativity that I read before doing business with them. Smooth transaction and great product. I realized none of the negativity was from people who actually tried one of there upgrades. I do understand some of the suspicion created by not disclosing any details of the work being done, but if I had an innovated way of improving the sound of a component, I think I would be reluctant to reveal the details.
I have an Oppo-105 SE upgraded by TUC and love the results. Some people suggested my comparison of stock vs Upgrade player is useless without a blind study listening test. Maybe I would agree with this notion if the differences were small. The differences are huge!! My brother had a stock player and we compared my upgrade to his stock 105 and his mouth dropped. It took all of 30 seconds for him to appreciate the improvement and this was only half way through the required 600 hour burn-in time required for these upgrades. I just laughed to see his reaction to the improvements...it's that good. When my budget allows, I will be purchasing an upgraded pre/processer through TUC.
I was not interested in joining these blogs, because of some of silliness I have read, but I felt it necessary as a happy customer to speak up for a great service the Upgrade Company provides.
NorthStar
New member
Hi rgallos,
Take anyone of your audio component, remove the top cover, wrap some aluminum foil paper around some wire's harnesses, and listen real carefully. ...Do that all by yourself; it's free.
Happy Canada Day!
Take anyone of your audio component, remove the top cover, wrap some aluminum foil paper around some wire's harnesses, and listen real carefully. ...Do that all by yourself; it's free.
Happy Canada Day!
sharkmouth
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2013
- Messages
- 1,616
Bob you old whoopasser you!
Face
New member
It's amazing how "Upgrade Company" threads always attract new posters... 
NorthStar
New member
I'll be right up front.....I am a newbie to "this" forum and a first time poster. And, I absolutely came to this forum to respond to this particular thread. You can view this as suspicious, as it seems some do, or, as another point of view.
For my audio/video experience, I don't care what's in the box - the component. I don't care about measurements either. Typically, a good SS component will better a good tube component in measurements, but it doesn't necessarily mean better sound. I know this will upset some folks, and there's not much I can do about that. Perhaps, this is what makes me a good candidate for TUC, since I'm all about the subjective experience. We are all different and have our own preferences.
Here's what I think:
1) Since TUC does not want to reveal what they do inside a component, then folks who absolutely have to know what's inside and what is done to a component are probably not folks who want to deal with TUC.
2) If TUC does not provide measurements (I don't know if they do or not), then folks who absolutely have to know about measurements are probably not folks who want to deal with TUC.
That's it. No need to bash, because TUC does not do the above. Just move on - it's not a good fit for you. Some folks love tubes, and SS is not a good fit for them. Other folks are the opposite. Again, nothing to bash here - if it's not for you, then move on to something else. No need to keep trying to push a square peg in a round hole.
When I first contemplated getting an upgrade from TUC, I read many of the old threads (on other forums). It did kind of scare me away a bit, but then I noticed there there was only 1-2 that actually claimed a bad experience with TUC, while others were just speculating negatively about TUC. I decided to try the upgrade on a lower cost component - a used (1 year old) Pioneer BDP-05FD blu ray player. With a money back guarantee and a special deal that Dave made for me (a discounted price), I wanted to check it out. Perhaps it was curiosity - who's right? Is it the folks speaking negatively (most of whom don't have any experience), or the folks speaking positively? I guess I had to find out - and since it was low cost, I considered it a low risk for me.
When I first got the blu ray player, after TUC's mods, I was not impressed. I was comparing to my Arcam DV27a, and the Arcam still had much better video, with better color saturation. The Arcam's audio was more refined. However, Dave let me know that I need to give it some time. As time went on, the Pioneer got better and better. Eventually, after a week or two, the Pioneer matched the Arcam's video, and the audio became a little bit better detailed than the Arcam, and just as smooth. At that point, I was happy with the mods, since my goal was to get the Arcam's performance in a blu ray player (since Arcam was taking forever to get a blu ray player out at that time).
That upgrade was several years ago, and the Pioneer still works great. Of course, I've moved on now to an upgraded Marantz blu ray player. The only upgraded component that has broken down was an upgraded Onkyo PR-SC5508 processor (that I still use). After one year, the HDMI went out on it. This was a common problem, as I found out, for Onkyo processors. I called TUC, and Dave recommended I call an Onkyo authorized repair center (closest to me) and get it in for repair, since it was still under Warranty. I sent it in, but I was a bit nervous regarding what they would think about the upgrades that Dave had done. Onkyo replaced the hdmi board and sent it back to me - no questions asked. OK, I could not resist, why did they not say anything about the upgrade?? I called the repair center, and I asked specifically - "So you fixed this under Warranty, even though it's had some upgrades done to it - does that not void the Warranty?". They told me that if the problem was due to the upgrade, they would not have fixed it. However, even though Dave had put the blue stuff on the chips of the hdmi board, they replaced the board, because they knew if was not problem from what he had done to the board. Needless to say, this turned out better than I had expected.
Dave
For my audio/video experience, I don't care what's in the box - the component. I don't care about measurements either. Typically, a good SS component will better a good tube component in measurements, but it doesn't necessarily mean better sound. I know this will upset some folks, and there's not much I can do about that. Perhaps, this is what makes me a good candidate for TUC, since I'm all about the subjective experience. We are all different and have our own preferences.
Here's what I think:
1) Since TUC does not want to reveal what they do inside a component, then folks who absolutely have to know what's inside and what is done to a component are probably not folks who want to deal with TUC.
2) If TUC does not provide measurements (I don't know if they do or not), then folks who absolutely have to know about measurements are probably not folks who want to deal with TUC.
That's it. No need to bash, because TUC does not do the above. Just move on - it's not a good fit for you. Some folks love tubes, and SS is not a good fit for them. Other folks are the opposite. Again, nothing to bash here - if it's not for you, then move on to something else. No need to keep trying to push a square peg in a round hole.
When I first contemplated getting an upgrade from TUC, I read many of the old threads (on other forums). It did kind of scare me away a bit, but then I noticed there there was only 1-2 that actually claimed a bad experience with TUC, while others were just speculating negatively about TUC. I decided to try the upgrade on a lower cost component - a used (1 year old) Pioneer BDP-05FD blu ray player. With a money back guarantee and a special deal that Dave made for me (a discounted price), I wanted to check it out. Perhaps it was curiosity - who's right? Is it the folks speaking negatively (most of whom don't have any experience), or the folks speaking positively? I guess I had to find out - and since it was low cost, I considered it a low risk for me.
When I first got the blu ray player, after TUC's mods, I was not impressed. I was comparing to my Arcam DV27a, and the Arcam still had much better video, with better color saturation. The Arcam's audio was more refined. However, Dave let me know that I need to give it some time. As time went on, the Pioneer got better and better. Eventually, after a week or two, the Pioneer matched the Arcam's video, and the audio became a little bit better detailed than the Arcam, and just as smooth. At that point, I was happy with the mods, since my goal was to get the Arcam's performance in a blu ray player (since Arcam was taking forever to get a blu ray player out at that time).
That upgrade was several years ago, and the Pioneer still works great. Of course, I've moved on now to an upgraded Marantz blu ray player. The only upgraded component that has broken down was an upgraded Onkyo PR-SC5508 processor (that I still use). After one year, the HDMI went out on it. This was a common problem, as I found out, for Onkyo processors. I called TUC, and Dave recommended I call an Onkyo authorized repair center (closest to me) and get it in for repair, since it was still under Warranty. I sent it in, but I was a bit nervous regarding what they would think about the upgrades that Dave had done. Onkyo replaced the hdmi board and sent it back to me - no questions asked. OK, I could not resist, why did they not say anything about the upgrade?? I called the repair center, and I asked specifically - "So you fixed this under Warranty, even though it's had some upgrades done to it - does that not void the Warranty?". They told me that if the problem was due to the upgrade, they would not have fixed it. However, even though Dave had put the blue stuff on the chips of the hdmi board, they replaced the board, because they knew if was not problem from what he had done to the board. Needless to say, this turned out better than I had expected.
Dave
Face
New member
It's amazing how "Upgrade Company" threads always attract new posters...
Let me elaborate, it's funny how whenever the "Upgrade Company" is mentioned in a thread, a slew of first time posters arrive to never be heard from again. This doesn't happen just here.
Thank you. We do our best.
I think we get it. If we could kindly move on to the subject at hand, that would be great.
Thanks!
Dave
vortrex
New member
The same thing always happens with Vapor Audio.
I think someone mentioned in a previous post about Kal and the folks at Stereophile. However, the folks at positive-feedback<dot>com do not have an issue with reviewing upgraded products. In fact, they have a couple of reviews of the Oppo with TUC mods. There's also an interview with Dave of TUC.
Dave
Dave
