SimontY said:
They are very expensive to build and are always made from parts sourced from different manufacturers for more optimum performance.
No CD manufacturer would use an off the shelf "super" reg as it won't be seen as doing something special or different to other manufacturers if they used them. You only have to look at all the cd players out there that have a special name or gimmick to sell players. eg HDAM
IMHO
Brent
martin clark said:
I noticed when I added my Zapfilter (with its big toroid) that the tingling you got when you run your finger along the chassis was greater. I switched the wires that go to the primary and it got much lower. Made the hum problem I had better too, though it didn't go completely until I used shielded inductors in the LPF between DAC and Zapfilter.
SimontY said:
Unfortunately £2000 - £3000 cd players have nothing special inside just better tx and caps with more careful circuit layouts which to be fair is what we are trying to do.
Instead of 78XX or LM317 type regs (like in the Naim gear) the dearer cd players use a transistor for voltage regulation with a few caps and zener diode. Nothing special there.
They don't have to"buy" a low noise reg they could just build it / them onto the pcb. Maybe some really exotic stuff (£10K+) uses this sort of circuit.
Brent
rowemeister said:
Yes, and as we've seen a valve output stage seems like a license to double the asking price. It's all about perceived value and how that perception changes our awareness of the sound being produced.
We know that reclocking the DAC and servo is a much more fundamental change in our players but it's not quite as sexy as two glowing rods of high voltage hype, therefore not as marketable.
Re. power supplies, I suppose the manufacturers reach excellence in power supplies by good isolation and overrating transformers (top end Naim especially), but is there aaaany gear that has ultra-low noise power? What about Musical Fidelity and their chokes??? Martin???
Simon
rowemeister said:
Me too. I read a rave review on a new £1000 dac in HFW the other day, it has four crappy opamps and apparently it's awesome, better than a £1500 player! But not as good as the writers cd63KI-DP. Made me laugh.
I agree with Simon, it reall is strange what can alter your perception (like having a copper plated cd player named after you).
btw - Just moved the mains supply from the electric cooker socket in the kitchen, to the living room. 6mm mains cable and 2.5mm earth, straight from the fuse box! Sound much nicer now it's more isolated from the rest of the house.
Lee.
Thomo said:Yup, Microwave meals
Anyone have any designs/ideas for a mains filter? Maybe a new thread is needed, can't be going off-topic can we, lol.
Lee.
Yes, let's not get toooo off-topic, but I'd like to share this idea:
Put one or two ~10uF 250VAC lighting capacitors across live - neutral. You could also throw some Y-rated caps across L-N and L-E.
Then you'll want some transient diodes across L-N to clear up the spikes. Much, much better/faster than the common varistors/MOVs.
You'll hear a warmer, more spacious sound with deeper bass.
Simon
ps - disregard any ideas you might see about putting things in series with the mains, unless you can cheaply find and are prepared to live with large isolation transformers, or want to build a "balanced" mains supply such as Ray did.
Thomo said:Yup, Microwave meals
Anyone have any designs/ideas for a mains filter? Maybe a new thread is needed, can't be going off-topic can we, lol.
Lee.
There are ways and means of builing a mains filter. Ours are all passive and do not add inductance. Always add a resistor across LN to discharge the caps.
Brent