I have updated my system page + the pdf of upgrades to the cd player have been updated if anyone is interested
Brents Reference system - Audio Upgrades
Brent
Brents Reference system - Audio Upgrades
Brent
Yes there has been alot of cash thrown at it over the years. Luckily being in the trade I can get discounts etc.
I worked out all my mains cables, filters and interconnects would cost close to £4K if I had to replace with new at retail cost!!!! Of course I have paid much less than that
The problem with having a cd player that outperforms new players costing over £12K (tested against new cd players at the Heathrow and Whittlebury HiFi shows) means the rest of the system has to be up to scratch too. It's a never ending story i'm afraid. But we love it
I'll be looking at the ATC amps next year to see what I can do with them. They are fully discrete so i'm sure it will only be capacitors that could be improved upon
Brent
I worked out all my mains cables, filters and interconnects would cost close to £4K if I had to replace with new at retail cost!!!! Of course I have paid much less than that
The problem with having a cd player that outperforms new players costing over £12K (tested against new cd players at the Heathrow and Whittlebury HiFi shows) means the rest of the system has to be up to scratch too. It's a never ending story i'm afraid. But we love it
I'll be looking at the ATC amps next year to see what I can do with them. They are fully discrete so i'm sure it will only be capacitors that could be improved upon
Brent
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CDP mods looking great there, I bet it sounds mighty now.
Don't be too sure of that. You may find some noisy zener's in there that can be replaced
Cheers, Lee.
I expect there'll be some resistors that could be changed too
And I bet you find other stuff to do... you always do
More than likely
Brent
I will tread very gingerly with this one: let's see...how to phrase it?
I all too well understand the need/desire/compulsion to go as far out in this kind of project as is possible (short of hardwiring it directly to your local nuk power station). I imagined, and have rarely been deceived, that simple, elegant circuitry-(using the best parts available and correcting the bad/useless design features of the orginal in the case of Marantz), would produce the best sound that can be acheived from a given peice of gear. I do understand that somethings like the DOS and S'regs and adding transformers and that lot, while apparently adding complexity, are in fact the only way to address shortcomings and improve on the sound. I'm sort of just wondering where this COULD end? Now brent you have added an external power supply. Will the trade off of simplicity vs. more circuitry and cables not somewhere cancel each other out? Maybe I'm explaining this badly. I guess one answer would be to take ALL the guts out and put it in a custom made case or gut an existing player that has lots of space. I like the idea of keeping it simple and under one roof but maybe that's just not possible to get the very best results.
I all too well understand the need/desire/compulsion to go as far out in this kind of project as is possible (short of hardwiring it directly to your local nuk power station). I imagined, and have rarely been deceived, that simple, elegant circuitry-(using the best parts available and correcting the bad/useless design features of the orginal in the case of Marantz), would produce the best sound that can be acheived from a given peice of gear. I do understand that somethings like the DOS and S'regs and adding transformers and that lot, while apparently adding complexity, are in fact the only way to address shortcomings and improve on the sound. I'm sort of just wondering where this COULD end? Now brent you have added an external power supply. Will the trade off of simplicity vs. more circuitry and cables not somewhere cancel each other out? Maybe I'm explaining this badly. I guess one answer would be to take ALL the guts out and put it in a custom made case or gut an existing player that has lots of space. I like the idea of keeping it simple and under one roof but maybe that's just not possible to get the very best results.
The complexity of power supplies will certainly not cancel other good things. The only negatives I can see of going more complex are: cost, space used, heat issues, noise radiated from transformers, caps, coils, wiring and diodes/rectifiers. The benefits of a low noise and impedance well-isolated power supply outweigh the above "problems" so spectacularly
Simple is only good when called for. There are reasons to go simple on a speaker, due to the immense amount of compromise inherent in designing them. A single driver with no crossover will sound purer and offer better harmonics than a multi-way system because of its better phase characteristics and predictable off-axis response. I won't go into the obvious drawbacks, I'm just making a point.
When things in electronics get made simple, sometimes it's better (fewer gain stages in an amp seems to be accepted as better). Sometimes, however, it's worse e.g. removing the the digital filter in an old cd player and running non-oversampling. Most people agree this sounds worse than the massively more complex scenario of running said digital filter from a dedicated power supply and low-noise voltage regulator and feeding the chip with its own low-jitter clock feed.
I could go on. There's no general rule for how complex things should be. Everything needs to be considered in full.
Simple is only good when called for. There are reasons to go simple on a speaker, due to the immense amount of compromise inherent in designing them. A single driver with no crossover will sound purer and offer better harmonics than a multi-way system because of its better phase characteristics and predictable off-axis response. I won't go into the obvious drawbacks, I'm just making a point.
When things in electronics get made simple, sometimes it's better (fewer gain stages in an amp seems to be accepted as better). Sometimes, however, it's worse e.g. removing the the digital filter in an old cd player and running non-oversampling. Most people agree this sounds worse than the massively more complex scenario of running said digital filter from a dedicated power supply and low-noise voltage regulator and feeding the chip with its own low-jitter clock feed.
I could go on. There's no general rule for how complex things should be. Everything needs to be considered in full.
Mr Pass says he makes his amps simpler and simpler... and with different priorities to most designers (increasing tendency to warm & romantic with higher distortion and less feedback), hence a magical sound
One day I will build Pass amps for my speakers, although my next project is a cheap JLH 1969 class A 10 watter to power my tweeter and mid (to go with the 400 watter on my woofers lol)
One day I will build Pass amps for my speakers, although my next project is a cheap JLH 1969 class A 10 watter to power my tweeter and mid (to go with the 400 watter on my woofers lol)