For those who aren't familiar with this player, it's the same player
as the popular mid-fi Music Hall CD-25, made by Shanling, rebadged
under the Onix brand name, and priced at $299 versus the Music
Hall's $549 street price. The only difference other than a different
face plate is the fact that the Onix uses a different set of Op Amps
in the filter / analog stage section. The Op Amps used in the Onix
are comparable to the ones used in the Music Hall and other low
priced CD players - good, but not the best.

With its stock Op Amps the sound of the Onix is typical of players
in the $500 price range - a clear step above the mass market players
offered at Best Buy, but not in the same league as players in the
$1,000 and above range. It commits no unpardonable sins like excess
digital harshness, a one dimensional soundtage, wimpy bass, etc. It
is an agreeable sounding player which none would find offensive, and
a good bargain at $299.

Now for the good news - the Op Amps in the Music Hall and Onix
players aren't soldered onto the circuit board. They are plugged
into sockets on the board. The Parts Connexion and several other
aftermarket modders offer to upgrade the Op Amps to the much more
highly regarded Burr Brown OPA627 chips for about $150 plus shipping
both ways. Or, you can order the chips from USA Caps, five for
$24.99 (it takes four), plus two adapter board to fit them to the
stock sockets for another $6.00 from Cimmaron Technologies. So, for
about $40 including shipping you can upgrade to the same digital
filter and analog stage used in true high end players such as the
new $5,000 Shanling SCD-T300 and others.

Upgrading from two 50 cent chips to four $5 ones does not make it a
$5,000 player, but the change in soundstage dimensionality is
amazing. The upgrade opens a black silence between the instruments
that just isn't there with the typical mid fi player. With the stock
Op Amps the center image dominates the soundstage, giving the
impression of an intimate sound that's very nice with close-
miked "audiophile" recordings, but it also masks much of the ambient
sounds that characterize as really good digital source. With the
upgrade Op Amps the sounds from the edges of the soundstage appear
to have their phase relationships better preserved, making the
background more silent and the ambient cues more audible.

I definitely recommend this player for anyone looking to upgrade
from a mass market CD or DVD player. I definitely prefer the Onix to
the modded Toshiba (which isn't saying much), and I also prefer it
to the Scott Nixon DAC, but that comparison's a closer call. I'll
bring it to the August 13th meeting and if there's any interest we
can use it as a benchmark for comparing a mid-fi player to the non-
upsampling DAC's.

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