Hi-Rez Highway: First Impressions - Toshiba SD4960 by BobM

OK, so Alex has stated that the Toshiba SD4960 Universal is actually a Samsung HD841. But I'm not really sorry that I bought it. It sounds more than pretty good.

It is definitely a lightweight (4.5 lbs), small (12" deep by barely 2" high), and inexpensively made unit - exactly what you would expect for $149 street price. The transport looks cheesy & is totally plastic. The case is very thin, without feet - just little bumps stamped into the metal to hold it up. I put it on Vibrapods, plugged it in and let it burn CD's for 24 hrs, then SACD's for another 24 hrs. Different lasers, different components. Interestingly, the unit got warmer to the touch on the SACD burn.

On first listen (after the CD burn) I noticed some grit on the top end. There was not a lot of life to the sound either. After the SACD burn things got quite a bit better. I'm sure there's more to go but so far I believe this is worth going deeper and looking for mods in the obvious places (power supply, analogue signal path, power cord, RCA jacks, op-amps, etc). I'm anxiously awaiting the engineers in the group to post the appropriate caps, op-amps, etc. to swap out.

CD playback - Now for the sound. I have a highly modded ART DI/O, which I used for copmparison plugged into the Toshiba's coax out. The DI/O had no problem synching with the SD4960 as transport. I heard no difference in the DI/O with the Toshiba as transport vs. my modded Cal Labx DX2 as transport, so I figure the Toshiba is putting out a decent digital signal.

Tonally, both the DI/O and Toshiba have a similar presentation - very hard to tell the difference between them unless I looked for subtle things. There was a huge similarity in how the both placed instruments in the room and in the soundstage also. The DI/O definitely resolves things better, with a smoother top end (but not necessarily more extended). There is a wee bit more air and space with the DI/O too. The Toshiba was a little congested, not quite resolving complex passages int he music as well. The bottom end was a little less palpable on double bass, but it did go deep and was definitely not the one-note kind. Now 24 hours burn in is probably not enough yet, so I still expect the unit to improve from here in subtle ways.

However, here's the clincher, there was not a night and day difference between the two, just subtle differences A/B'ing one against the other. That was the surprising part to me. I believe this one is worth watching, and although it might not be the perfect unit to mod (one board for all components, lots of teeny tiny parts on there too, a rather cheesy transport and case, not a lot of space to expand into) it seems to be starting off in a rather good way. Very surprising - cheap digital has come a long way.

SACD playback - I only have one SACD disk, and although I played it I was really concentrating on the CD quality and use of the unit as a possible fuiture transport. I believe it meets my needs nicely in that regard, and the added benefit of SACD and DVD-A capability is a huge bonus. I may be able to do a head-to-head against a Sony 9000 SACD unit soon, if a friend of mine is willing to bring it over.

My biggest gripe is the remote. The unit needs a TV connected to it for anything more advanced than play, stop and track changes. There's no display on the unit to tell what's going on. Even using "Repeat" is a challenge of guessing whether I got it on or not. It is also somewhat slow to respond to commands from the remote and needs a good line of site for them to be triggered at all.

For $149, so far it's a keeper and worth going farther with it. OK, who's next and where are the modders?

Sorry, this diatribe was a bit longer than originally intended. Hope it helps you others.

Bob