I have had the 999es for about 20 months now. The U.S. version comes with some pretty unimpressive opt-amps in the audio output stage. Acording to the service manual for this unit (which I purchased from Sony), the Japanese and European versions have better op-amps. I guess Sony thinks that Americans are deaf or something.

What?


I replaced these (putting in I.C. sockets as well) with better ones. This improved the sound noticably but it is not as good as a xa777es player, but closer than what it was in stock form.

I use the ICBM for all my bass management and do not use any bass management in any of my Sony players.

Paul

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the 1derful1