Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

My oh my this thread's been busy today!

Brent, your capacity to squeeze even more into that box never ceases to astound me.... and how long does it take to dismantle? Sometimes I find I've a screw or two left over - I can imagine you looking around and finding transformers and PCBs left over... "oops, forgot that one"...

Speaking of transformers....

My 67SE has had a terrible mechanical buzz from its transformer for as long as I've had it. I tried a few things, like decoupling it from the chassis with rubber grommets etc., which helped but it always bugged the hell out of me. Particularly those late-night listening sessions. My ear/brain was tuned to it because I knew it was there.

I have an old stock standard 63 (with non-SE transformer) which I listen to when my 67SE is undergoing surgery.... so I thought sod this, I'll swap 'em. The analogue stage (Zapfilter2) and clock (Tent XO2) have their own transformers anyway so I wasn't expecting a sound-quality penalty.

Sure enough, I didn't get one. Which is nice. AND NO MORE BUZZING! YEAAHH!!! :) :) :)

The standard TX has the bracket welded to the laminations (?) so they can't vibrate. The SE one does not. Looking at them it seems obvious why one is noisy and one isn't.

The standard TX runs a little hotter, though I may be imagining that.

Just listened to some Kate Walsh on it and it's sounding very sweet.
 
Glenn2 said:
My oh my this thread's been busy today!

Brent, your capacity to squeeze even more into that box never ceases to astound me.... and how long does it take to dismantle? Sometimes I find I've a screw or two left over - I can imagine you looking around and finding transformers and PCBs left over... "oops, forgot that one"...

Speaking of transformers....

My 67SE has had a terrible mechanical buzz from its transformer for as long as I've had it. I tried a few things, like decoupling it from the chassis with rubber grommets etc., which helped but it always bugged the hell out of me. Particularly those late-night listening sessions. My ear/brain was tuned to it because I knew it was there.

I have an old stock standard 63 (with non-SE transformer) which I listen to when my 67SE is undergoing surgery.... so I thought sod this, I'll swap 'em. The analogue stage (Zapfilter2) and clock (Tent XO2) have their own transformers anyway so I wasn't expecting a sound-quality penalty.

Sure enough, I didn't get one. Which is nice. AND NO MORE BUZZING! YEAAHH!!! :) :) :)

The standard TX has the bracket welded to the laminations (?) so they can't vibrate. The SE one does not. Looking at them it seems obvious why one is noisy and one isn't.

The standard TX runs a little hotter, though I may be imagining that.


LOL im a professional I don't forget anything Honest.

I am suprised you can hear no difference between the two tx. The SE one has a larger VA (which will be why the standard one will get hotter). Best thing to do is fill the gaps in the tx with hot glue. I have had a 100% success rate doing this.

Brent
 
adyf said:
just tried a 1x burn and still got the same problems - it's on the original laser - i've seen they're less than £20 from dalbani -

think i'll try this next..

cheers

adrian

I'd not buy it from there. More than one has been faulty. Mine will be going back (power was adjusted high AND it would intermittently read the TOC on "Jazz at the Pawn Shop").

They're happily going to send another or refund. So I'll have to sell the replacement now as I got another from elsewhere :apathic:

Also, changing just the laser is a nightmare job.
 
Re: transport cdr whine

adyf said:
hello

is there a consensus opinion on the CDR playing issue on these CD63's?

i've searched this thread and found some interesting explanations - especially the particular type of CDR burnt by a DVDR drive..

My CD63, I've just started to mod, reads the TOC of all discs perfectly but always whines when playing the 1st track of CDR's burnt from a DVDR drive. After a couple of minutes the CDP gives up and stops - error 10 - radial error... I have no problem playing commercial CD's.. and strangely playing tracks further into the CDR is fine - then when going back to track 1 - it's ok??

I'm not able to test a CDR from a CDR drive yet..

I've tweaked the torx screws on the rear of the transport but found no sweet spot yet. I've also cleaned the hardened grease from the rails.. is it possible this player will never play CDR's burnt from DVDR drives?

thanks adrian

Brent's advice sounds good - sounds like a vibration/resonance issue.

I've had similar problems, but they can happen anywhere on the disc. I've replaced the laser a few times but the new ones are sh!te and always crap out on me after a few months (if they work at all). I've gone back (again!) the the original one in mine which occasionally has an issue with CDRs. It always plays fine once it starts (and I've still yet to ever hear it skip, which amazes me) it's just that on some CDRs when you skip from track to track you get a radial error. You try again and it works 2nd time (or 3rd at most).

I thought I'd found its sweet spot when adjusting it, but my 'Greatest Hits of OMD' CD (not CDR) killed that delusion... so I put it back to how it was. :)

Interestingly though, ONLY on ones burnt with a Yamaha CDRW drive. I had no such trouble once I switched to DVDRW drives. (First NEC, now Plextor.) The media was the same throughout, namely Japanese Plextor-branded Taiyo Yuden discs.
 
rowemeister said:
I am suprised you can hear no difference between the two tx. The SE one has a larger VA (which will be why the standard one will get hotter). Best thing to do is fill the gaps in the tx with hot glue. I have had a 100% success rate doing this.

Brent

I think it's because it's only supplying servo, decoder, CPU.
Everything's well regulated now too.

I think the analogue section benefits the most from a beefier TX and the Zapfilter has its own toroid.

Maybe the vibration of the SE was actually having a detrimental effect too. I thought it actually sounded better with the standard one to be honest, but have convinced myself I was imagining it.
 
rowemeister said:
The CPC lasers are mint.

I use Ridata cdr and have never had one problem but I know Plextor are good. I always stick to Pioneer cd and dvd drives. This was due to the old xbox games always working when burning an game image on these drives.

Brent

Surely you just buy all your XBOX games and have no need to copy them for any reason whatsoever?? :judge:

:shhh:
 
Thomo said:
I seem to remember that somebody built a valve output stage (Ray?), does anyone have a schematic? A mate is very interested in getting me to build one, which is good cos I'm skint.

Lee.

Yes, that was me :yes:
It never made it past the prototype stage, but it sounded very good. I took the solid-state path...
I'll see if I can come up with the schematic, the circuit is not that complicated.

Ray
 

Attachments

  • cd67ose_tubestage_6.jpg
    cd67ose_tubestage_6.jpg
    81.8 KB · Views: 357
Considering the exemplary sound of the FET/solid state output stage, I've no idea why anyone would feel the need to add unreliability and something fragile into their player.

Lee, does your friend read too many hi-fi comics? If his sound needs "sweetening up" I'd imagine it's better to do it with good component choice and speaker tweaking.

Just my 2p and I mean no offence.

Simon
 
cdr whining cured!

great - just stuck a 10p piece with blu tac on the CD clamp and it works beautifully!

thanks - this would probably be a good mod for most people i'd imagine - no more whining and it plays my cdr's perfectly..

only problem now is when I did the muting transistor mod - i took out R659, 660 instead of c659, 660!! doh - no output - just on the start of my learning curve!


thanks again

adrian
 
Anyone here prefer silvered-mica filter caps to polystyrenes?

If so, which ones?

I think I've seen them in someone's CD63/67 (Maybe Ray or Brent).

I need de-emphasis caps (560pf) for a tuner.

Either the LCR polystyrenes ones or Cornell Dubilier silver mica is all Farnell have in that value.

Cheers,
Glenn
 
SimontY said:
Considering the exemplary sound of the FET/solid state output stage, I've no idea why anyone would feel the need to add unreliability and something fragile into their player.

Lee, does your friend read too many hi-fi comics? If his sound needs "sweetening up" I'd imagine it's better to do it with good component choice and speaker tweaking.

Just my 2p and I mean no offence.

Simon

That's more or less the reason I took the solid state route. Tubes are NOT fragile BTW (ever tried overloading a BC550 with 400V without any damage?? :) but you need an extra HV and heater supply. A bit too complicated at that time to fit into the player without too much trouble. After several listening tests I came to the conclusion that the outputstage sounded great in both cases, whether it was built with tubes or FETs, so solid state it was...

Originally posted by Glenn2 OT...

Internals of new CD6002 found on net...

Is that the el-cheapo KSS laserunit again?? :bawling:
Must be the Denon-influence, no more 'European' parts. 'DSD and pitch control' ?? Yuk!!

Ray
 
I have been modding my CD63 KI for a while now, but have only just noticed that there is a 20mV p-p signal at the output, at about 12Mhz (maybe, a bit messy).
Hi Geoff - yes it is . It's because the NPC dac output is raw PWM at the clock frequency, so lots of switching noise makes it though. HF stuff like this defies filters unless very carefully designed for RF performance (which being commercial hifi... it isn't!)