Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

What do you mean? I have HItech veroboard :D

No need for advanced pcb for this simple thing.

Started it up with NE5534 (cheap if they caught fire - you know ;) ). Lot of bass but not perticular "nice". Didn't listen all that much to 5534, I changed to AD8620 pretty quick. Might try LT1361, but I really like the AD's.
 
I did my first round of mods today, mostly focusing on the analog stage. Heres what i did so far.

c803,804 2200uf/25v elna starget(blackgates on order)
c805,806 1000uf/16v elna starget(blackgates on order)
c611-614 220uf/16v elna Silmic
c901,902 22uf/16v elna Silmic
cd04, 07 470/16v rubycon zl
c655-658 replaced with jumper
c659, 660 removed
r658, 659 removed
muting transistors removed


I just did them this morning and theve been playing on repeat while I was at work to break in a bit. Im listening to my first cd since the mods and I definitly can hear a differance. The sound opened up a bit and there is a little more detail, bass is a bit more powerful and deep as well.

Now im waiting for the opa132's to arrive so I can install the browndog adapters(opa627+opa132). Im hoping for a big jump in sound quality with this mod! I also have a whole bunch of parts on the way including the new clock, more lytics,inductors and schottkys for the power supply, film caps and .1% resistors for the analogue filter and a few other odds and ends.

When you guys did your mods, which ones made the biggest jump in performance?? Im thinking the opamps, clock and film caps for the filter are some of the more important mods. I cant beleive the cd53 has ceramic caps in the filter, cant wait to get rid of those!! Thanks to everyone here for your help! I will post pics in the next few days.
 
One more question, when choosing the lytic caps for the digital sections, do I want to use an audio type cap like a Silmic/cerafine or do i want the lowest impeadance cap i can get like a Rubycon MCZ or Panasonic FM series? The rubycon MCZ and Panasonic FM have much better specs than special audio caps like Cerafine or Muse. So wouldnt you be better off with the MCZ or FM cap, at least in the digital sections?
 
Well I listened for a while to the new mods I just did and the player is definitly improving. But I got anxious so I opened it up again to see what else I could do to the player before I get all the parts I ordered. I descided to try the "clock hack" sin ce my clock upgrade wont be here for a week or two. It took a very steady hand to solder the small .1uf xr7 across pin 2 and 27 of the dac and cutting the traces and relocating cd03, 02 under the board but I luckily got it all done with no trouble:) I put the player back together and to my surprise it still worked:)

Im listening to the player now I have Tool's new albumn 10000days on and its sounding really nice. The clock hack definitly worked and made decent improvement especially in the bass, its faster and has more impact now!! Cant wait to see what the upgrade clock fed by its own power supply will do!!!!

The more I listen to this player though I notice that it definitly seems to be lacking in the detail department. Im really hoping the mods to the analog section(opamps, .1% resistors, 1% styrene caps, and 12v super regs) will cure this???

Well im off to relax and listen to some good music. Goodnight everyone!
 
I finaly modded my cd 67se. Tonight I got rid of the output caps, muting transistors and related resistors and replaced the opamps with ones from brown dog. It had been a while since I listened to my setup but it sounds much better. I would love to add a clock but it will have to wait until I can buy one or build a kwak (beyond my skill for now). I was wondering if it would be possible to add a second set of rca outs that have the hdam bypassed so I can use my cd player both ways.
 
ok So I put in some opamps in my player tonight and Im having a weird problem, im getting a static typpe noise from the left side, the music will pay but at a lower level and then it will stop altogether. Its driving me crazy, at first I thought it was a bad opamp so I treid another with the same result. Any ideas!!! {Please help.
 
imperfectcircle said:
Well I listened for a while to the new mods I just did and the player is definitly improving. But I got anxious so I opened it up again to see what else I could do to the player before I get all the parts I ordered. I descided to try the "clock hack" sin ce my clock upgrade wont be here for a week or two. It took a very steady hand to solder the small .1uf xr7 across pin 2 and 27 of the dac and cutting the traces and relocating cd03, 02 under the board but I luckily got it all done with no trouble:) I put the player back together and to my surprise it still worked:)

Im listening to the player now I have Tool's new albumn 10000days on and its sounding really nice. The clock hack definitly worked and made decent improvement especially in the bass, its faster and has more impact now!! Cant wait to see what the upgrade clock fed by its own power supply will do!!!!

The more I listen to this player though I notice that it definitly seems to be lacking in the detail department. Im really hoping the mods to the analog section(opamps, .1% resistors, 1% styrene caps, and 12v super regs) will cure this???

Well im off to relax and listen to some good music. Goodnight everyone!

The op amps wont blow you away with some magical audio but they will bring more detail to the music, the 627 132 is a very well balanced opamp combo and does most things right. Enjoy ;-)

Brent
 
DJNUBZ said:
I finaly modded my cd 67se. Tonight I got rid of the output caps, muting transistors and related resistors and replaced the opamps with ones from brown dog. It had been a while since I listened to my setup but it sounds much better. I would love to add a clock but it will have to wait until I can buy one or build a kwak (beyond my skill for now). I was wondering if it would be possible to add a second set of rca outs that have the hdam bypassed so I can use my cd player both ways.

You could run two RCA on the output but the only problem with that is you are leaving components in on the signal line, this is not the most ideal option. You could build a small relay switching circuit to isolate these two rca from each other.

Brent
 
Another quote from a customer....

I modded a KI last week. Already fitted were 3 audiocom Qpower regs and a audiocom clock.

I re routed these regs and installed them differently (the original install was neat but not optimised due to layout) fitted all psu caps and used silmics through out the op amps and dac stages. More regs , damping and seperate tx for regs.

All the basic stuff we are all doing on this forum.

Here is his reply to it

" Hi Brent,

I have been away for a few days but finally cracked it open yesterday and fired it up. I left it running for a few hours then had a listen. The improvement, at first, was obvious but not massive. However after an hour or so it was clear that there is a lot more of, well, everything really. The main thing is the improvement in control and grip that the player has over more complex stuff. From my experience these thing take a while to bed in but so far it's excellent. I just want to listen to all my CD's now! I'll give you some more feedback when I have time to evaluate it properly.

Thanks for all your help

Conrad"

Another happy person with a modded player.

Brent
 
Well I woke up this morning and the player is styill working fine, I donno what was wrong I checked and rechecked solder joints, and treid differant opamps and cant find anything wrong. isnt it strange how [problems like that occur. Anyways right now im runnuing AD827's in place of the browndog adapters, and the player is sounding awesome!! Im not even sure im going to put the browndog/opa627's back in! Especially since trhe player is working fine I dont want to mess up anything again:)