Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

I made mine adjustable as I didn't know at the time if I'd have to raise the reg voltage if the regs were too hot. I added small heatsinks after this pic anyway (note that the heatsinks must not touch each other unless you use insulators!). I ended up bending one reg forwards and one backwards, so I could refit the cross brace. There is of course no need to put them on the same board as each other.


I just put a similar combination in my cd63se (just without adjustable resistors). I ended up with 7.7V (+ and -), which worked just fine to power all 3 amps. I hope the 220uF cap I put on is sufficient (since there are 3 chips feeding off either reg), but so far there is a noticable change in sound.

Bass seems less boomy, and peaks in the music are more pronounced and more stable (drum snares and cymbals).

I think my cd63 is about done now... (10 regulators, Flea Clock with separate PSU, 2*lm4562, HDAM bypass to gold plated RCA sockets, OSCons as digital decouplers)... and it's sounding pretty amazing now...

I do have another 15VAC out from the new transformer... The first secondary is powering the Flea, what would benefit most from a separate PSU? Opamps? Or the complete digital section?
 
I just put a similar combination in my cd63se (just without adjustable resistors). I ended up with 7.7V (+ and -), which worked just fine to power all 3 amps. I hope the 220uF cap I put on is sufficient (since there are 3 chips feeding off either reg), but so far there is a noticable change in sound.

Bass seems less boomy, and peaks in the music are more pronounced and more stable (drum snares and cymbals).

Sounds absolutely fine.

The improvement is music dependent, but I remember one CD I put on that was instantly transformed by this mod: Radiohead 'Pablo Honey'. Just the first track and I was grinning.
 
Absolutely... I noticed pop music improved significantly, the latest Coldplay cd now sounds actually decent, while previously it sounded completely messed up. Instruments were drowning, the voice was not understandable. Now it is MUCH clearer!

Other types of music (Jazz etc) has not improved so much.

Interesting comments. I think this is perhaps because pop (well, all music fundamentally) relies on timing, whereas other music (female singers!!) needs good tone. This (tone) is the area the CD63 struggles with for my money, but it can do detail and timing immensely well.

Simon
 
Last edited:
Not what I just did, no. All I did was:

* cut U215
* connect C611-C614 grounds together underneath
* connect with wire to this point from C803/C804
* also connect with wire from near C815 - the big star under the original 5V reg

Of course one could and should go further but it is a faff!

Simon

ps - the bass seems tighter, in fact the whole sound is probably better controlled.
 
Now I have a conundrum. I want to put an S Power on this CD63 I'm doing, and I want it to feed the DAC. I think the whole DAC will want feeding from this so do I use U164 or is there some other way? Hmm, on the service manual this looks good... seems to cover everything.

ps - currently testing with Jean Michel Jarre - Aero ;)
 
Last edited:
OMG, too much JMJ for me in the '80s. Have mercy, no more!
About "old school" sound I don't know, seems it makes the signer more close to me and also more excited, even if it's all other things less. Like a super smooth & natural (boring?) sound vs more raw... I need rock and roll kick!
If I was you (yep I may fry even more players ;) ) I put the SReg on the analog DAC only.

Matthieu
 
I know analogue-only will sing but feeding all the local area from it may sing more... as was Brent and Lee's advice to me. It's a conundrum because I already have 7805s feeding xtal and digital sections. I might just put it on analogue for now and see how it sounds. I can just lift U164 and that'll do analogue plus the feeds via 10k resistors, which is a bonus I think, plus it's easy to fit there!!

Yeh, I'll be back in 30mins to report ;)