The Upgrade Company

Unsolicited Customer Testimonials - Every client has paid The Upgrade Company LLC in full.   No kickbacks, no commissions, no fees of any kind for recommending our products and services.

It's worth mentioning that we've upgraded customer-owned top of the line $60,000+ Esoteric 5-box P-01/D-01/G-0Rb CD SACD set and achieved large measureable increases in specifications and performance.

Check out our PHOTOS section under COMPONENTS then PHOTOS for pictures of the stock Esoteric P-01/D-01/G-0Rb 5 box set. 

Let me explain...

Inside my equipment are the following mods:

All individual electronic signal components & circuit boards are sealed with a new Upgrade Co only special RF dissipating and vibration dampening treatment, as well as adhesive backed constrained layer metal vibration dampening shield, multi-layered wrapping for all signal & power cables and so on. The outer case of each component is dampened inside where needed, using the same adhesive backed constrained layer metal vibration dampening shield.

See here for a reference for this level of treatment. Of course you can Google microphonics too.

https://www.analog.com/en/technical-articles/mechanical-design-for-microphonic-sensitive-electronics.html#

Now I'd love to tell you all the materials and methods used. But I'm not here to make a business partner and share business critical IP developed over many years, so I hope you will understand why I can't give you all the details. And you can join me and try them out for yourself anyway.

These SE Upgrades & RFI EMI & vibration treatments are installed patiently by hand over approximately 15-35 hours depending upon component complexity. Imagine disassembling treating and reassembling components.

This entire process and all the materials selected and employed were designed by David J. Schulte, President of The Upgrade Company. David is a high technology inventor with 7 patents mostly in military defense & fusion power. David's methods are totally unique.

These methods result in a significantly dampened & noise-free unit. That sounds significantly better. Arguably much closer to the original design intent because of the protection of the signal path and the power circuits. Wrapping transformers, sure...wrapping treating all parts involved in transmitting or interfering with the music signal. Made better by controlling internal vibrations extensively, rather then just preventing passage of external vibrations which never seem to stop vibration to the touch, upon the component case itself.

My components sound significantly better to me (and everyone who hears them too) because of the SE Upgrades. Much better sound then my wife & I hear at dealers & HiFi Shows. Much deeper more articulate bass response, super clear mids and highs, very organic, 3D, lifelike. Hey, one time I was so fed up with Dan Wright I sent his upgraded Pioneer LX800 to be measured alongside an untreated unit and a TUC Upgraded unit. To an expert guy in Canada. He proved that the TUC and untreated units had significantly lower IMD (intermodulation distortion) and lower 60hz hum. They sounded much better with The Upgrade Company's SE upgraded version coming out on top overall.

Back to my story of the footings. I thought I'd try Isoacoustics Orea feet under my Esoteric K03Xs Player and my Lampizator DAC and listen for changes. (Those who asked my amps below don't seem to read this so well.) There really wasn't any changes I could here in my DACS. See photo below.

I thought, "I'll give it some time".
Three weeks later after experimenting further I concluded that I didn't need them since they provided no benefit to an already fully internally damped system with the SE Upgrades.

Discoveries come with experience and time.

The SE Upgrade benefits of quiet noise-free signal & power supply purity are the primary purposes achieved with these treatments. The anti-vibration work that comes standard during the SE Upgrades is also an integral part of providing the purest path for the music signals to travel. Think microphonics, where vibration induced noise is actually both audible and measurable. Here's a link to explain more about what scale of vibrations cause interference. And why airplanes are designed to control such vibrations in their instruments...

What was really astonishing is their new "Statement SE upgrade" which is a far higher level of RFI EMI treatment & dampening installed. 3x the materials and labor for only a nominal price increase, I'm a sucker for good value in Audio where I can hear the difference and I've paid for independent research that proves those differences matter. Again, this is my personal and measured experience. You can test this out for yourself too if you want to.

As a result of one component being treated it's obvious GIGO right...so I learned to take a "whole of system" approach over the past five years and have had every component SE Upgraded by The Upgrade Company, as well as installed and slowly upgraded the standard of their TimePortal Cables through out my system.

Yes it didn't happen overnight to acquire everything. But boy it makes a huuuuge difference to have this RFI EMI elimination technology throughout the whole system. Adding more resolving and powerful speakers, first my Viking Acoustics Berlin R Type II Horn speakers and late last year the PMC MB2SE enabled me to hear those differences even better. As an audio system its performance is now far greater than the sum of its parts. This includes power conditioning and magnetic resonance control through Richard Grey Power Company products. Added one step at a time.

Now I have three pairs of footers I don't need...

Dr. John M. Read