The Upgrade Company

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Unsolicited Customer Testimonials sent to The Upgrade Company LLC

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Lavry DA10 DAC with Signature Edition Upgrade

This review is for the SE Upgraded Lavry DA10 DAC with Modifications performed by David J. Schulte of The Upgrade Company.

By way of introduction I have known David for approximately five years. In that time I have either had David upgrade all of my components or replace them with items David felt would be a bigger bang for the bucks.

From the first SE upgrade through my most recent purchase of a traded-in SE Upgraded Lavry DA10 dac, David’s upgrades made a very significant improvement in my sound system at a very reasonable price as compared to going out and buying stock magazine Class A recommended components. Frankly mine sound better IMHO.

My system is composed of all Upgrade Company SE Upgraded components:  Krell 400xi integrated amplifier, Oppo UDP-203  Lavry DA 10 dac running off the Oppo 203 SE, Richard Gray Power Company’s RPGC Pro 400 power conditioner with all Furutech NCF hardware which made a huge improvement by the way due to The Upgrade Co’s RFI EMI RIDDANCE and swapping in all Furutech NCF plugs and IEC inlet.  I also have all of The Upgrade Company’s TimePortal Statement proprietary power cords, interconnects, and loudspeaker cables.

Now onto my Upgrade Co. SE Upgraded RFI EMI RIDDED Lavry DA10 DAC. Originally I was interested in purchasing a new Oppo UDP-205. I asked David whether I should consider one of The Uprade Company’s Oppo 205’s. We discussed it on several occasions and instead David explained that I should keep my Oppo UDP-203 SE as a transport and purchase an outboard SE Upgraded RFI EMI RIDDED DAC instead for even higher performance then a new Oppo 205 SE could deliver. “Outboard DAC’s make a bigger difference”.  Even though David was very positive on his modified Oppo 205 he said that the combination of my Upgrade Company SE’d Oppo 203 and Lavry DA10 dac would take the sound of my system up several levels of sound compared to the modified Oppo 205. It was also less expensive than the modified Oppo 205 and per usual David gave me 30 days to A-B it all to make my final decision.

When I received the SE Upgraded RFI EMI RIDDED Lavry dac I was able to compare it head to head against a friend’s modified Oppo UDP-205.  It was simply no contest. The Upgrade Company Oppo 203+ Lavry DA10 combination simply blew the Oppo 205 away. The Oppo 203/ Lavry DA10 improved the sound over the Oppo 205 with a huge dynamic expansive powerful yet very delicate soundstage against a far quieter background, a much larger/deeper sound stage in the back and front and it also threw a significantly larger sound stage from side to side. It enlarged the sweet spot by at least fifty percent. In regard to transparency, dynamics, placement of instruments, soft and loud passages, voices, piano, and finally in terms of neutrality it was neither bright nor dark as opposed to the Oppo 205 which tended to favor the highs in its overall.  Both my friend and I agreed that the SE Upgraded  Lavry DA10 simply blew away the Oppo 205 even when it played an SACD vs just a regular CD on the Upgrade Co. Oppo 203+Lavry DAC combo.  Wow.

Finally, David had said before I bought the Lavry that even an SE modified Oppo 205 would not quite reach the SE’d Oppo 203+Lavry DA10 combo:  outboard DAC’s make a huuuge improvement. David said that once again the SE’d Oppo 203/Lavry DA10 is simply a much better sounding way to go with an outboard DAC rather then get another single box player even if I jumped up to a new Esoteric player.  Glad I did.

Very highly recommended.

Don K, VA