Pick my new CDP

Man tough chioce. I'm saving to get the Jolida but would love to have the Shanling but i'll choose number 1.

Halo wrote:

If it were me I'd go for a Jolida with Stage I or Stage II mods from H.R.A.M.

Just to make things tougher, I put my stock Bada up against a modded Jolida at HRAM and the owner and I agreed there was no discernable difference between the two players. My friend has the Shanling and a Bada. A modded Bada will easily smoke at least two of your choices for a lot less money.

BTW -- the HRAM level 1 mods are a big rip-off. Likewise for Underwood Hifi.

zombie boy 2000 wrote:

Early... what that with the stock tubes in the Bada, as well?

Yep. That was a couple of years ago. Once the tube was rolled, the sound improved significantly.

I'm sure you won't be second guessing yourself anyway. Nice purchase! You got the best looking one and I can't believe the other 2 could surpass the sound.

Halo wrote:

There are 3 "levels" of mods available from H.R.A.M. for the J100:

1. Mini mod
2. Stage I
3. Stage II

Just to be clear which one / ones are rip offs & why?

Not trying to debate you - just looking for info. Sorry for the de-rail

OK, let's go through it line by line:


Change out the dull sounding stock Chinese tubes for ElectroHarmonix 12AX7A's of Russia. This greatly opens the top end and increases clarity and detail; directly relating to depth of image.

Anyone can do that themselves.

Replace a pair of the inexpensive stamped metal Gold RCA outputs with much higher build quality Rhodium over Silver plate Cardas Audio jacks for the ultimate in signal transfer. These are also built much more robust for a longer service life.

Questionable whether this has any sonic benefit at all.

Rewire internally with teflon-insulated 99.999% pure solid core silver-covered copper wire. This replaces the very thin, tinned, stranded copper wire that is in the stock unit.

This is OK.

Rewire the set of gold plated stock output jacks (there are dual outputs on this player) with solid core Gold/Silver/Copper alloy output wire. This replaces the very thin, tinned, stranded wire that is in the stock unit, and gives this player 2 separate sonic signatures making it "tunable" for different sounding audio systems. The Gold side will have more of a warm mellow presentation, while the Silver side will have an open, airy, detailed presentation.

Same.

Replace the 4 diodes in the power supply with Fairchild Stealth ultrafast soft recovery diodes.

This is OK. Cost for 4 diodes is negligible.

Damp the inside of the chassis, transformers, and transport with 9 StarrDamp CS damping sheets. This adds mass to the thin sheet metal used in the cover, and internal walls. It unlocks low level detail lost to resonation and vibration that reach the transport mechanism and ultimately the laser, which cause degradation of the signal. The Copper layer makes our damping material superior to all others since it acts as an RFI shield in addition to damping.

Anyone can DIY using Dynamat or another dampening material.

4 KTS Super ISO-Damp Discs for use under the player. This gives you the ultimate in chassis isolation, and vibration absorption.

Questionable whether this tweak makes a sonic difference.


IMO, the upgrade with the biggest benefit to improving the sound is changing the tubes. Anyone can do that. So for what you're paying for the lower level mods, you may as well keep most of your money and buy some tubes and roll them yourself. HRAM modded my CDP a couple of years ago, so I have some experience with them. They're OK, but most of their mods are largely a waste of money.

The next major sonic benefit would be the caps. I believe that once you settle on a set of tubes you like and change out the caps, you'll have 95% of the sonic benefit of the highest level of mods offered. You'll also save yourself some money by purchasing the parets yourself and having a tech install them (or install them yourself if you can).

Hope this helps.

Shizelbs wrote:

Okay, well, thanks for the lesson on Jolida mods. Mods aside, is the Jolida worth checking out at all and comparing to the Shanling?

I heard the Shanling at an audio dealer in less than ideal conditions (which is probably why it didn't float my boat). I thought it looked very :cool:

A little more than a year later I purchased a stock Jolida J100. Out of the box it sounded like total shite. I let her burn in for 50 hours, swapped the tubes with some Ei elite gp's, and swapped out the stock power cord with a Magic Power Cable from Signal Cable. BIG improvement over stock.

I was looking to go with a clock + cap(s) upgrade (like F1's AA Top Fuel Dragster mods) when I stumbled accross H.R.A.M. and H.R.A.M. seems to have the best bang-for-your-buck w/ their Stage I & Stage II mods.

YMMV & I could be completely wrong here (If so let me know).