shepperd said:Simon, I appreciate your input. Doing it the cheap and easy way can be an excercize in frustration. Just to be clear though, I have GREAT speakers, a nifty amp, good wires and a very "easy" room.
Even though I am in my dotage, I still have good ears and 35 years of audio insanity to back up my opinions (which are nothing more than...) I wish I had learned more instead of the hit-and-miss approachI am just humbly trying to learn a bit from you guys who obviously are WAY ahead, cutting-edge types. I had a Swiss friend who was a very hard-core diyer and knew his stuff backwards. He used to get really cross with me because I didn't understand a thing, just wanted results!!! He wanted me to understand WHY the results were...
We're all learning here. We have to keep open minds and be receptive to new ideas all the time. I have a long way to go but happily, aged 25, I'm almost pleased with the sound I have. Good luck with your quest, and listen to the suggestions and always balance them with 2nd and third opinions. We don't all like Black Gates, for example.
Simon
TOO LATE BRENT! I just ordered a new one
well it can't hurt...
I told you already this: it spits and mistracks at odd moments, or refuses to read a disk without a hard tap. Sometimes it stops altogether or refuses to start without a smack. No correlation with cd types unless it has something to do with how well they have been made. I tried cleaning and resetting the ribbons. No help. I can't think of another scenario except the laser assembly, which must have had a serious jolt whenever the UK post dropped it out of a plane I am happy with the Panasonic caps, both in this player and in my Mardis T-amp. From what I have heard, Black Gates take forever to burn in. I've already been that road with my speakers that took 300 hours . You gotta draw the line somewhere...
well it can't hurt...I told you already this: it spits and mistracks at odd moments, or refuses to read a disk without a hard tap. Sometimes it stops altogether or refuses to start without a smack. No correlation with cd types unless it has something to do with how well they have been made. I tried cleaning and resetting the ribbons. No help. I can't think of another scenario except the laser assembly, which must have had a serious jolt whenever the UK post dropped it out of a plane
I am happy with the Panasonic caps, both in this player and in my Mardis T-amp. From what I have heard, Black Gates take forever to burn in. I've already been that road with my speakers that took 300 hours . You gotta draw the line somewhere...
shepperd said:TOO LATE BRENT! I just ordered a new one
I told you already this: it spits and mistracks at odd moments, or refuses to read a disk without a hard tap. Sometimes it stops altogether or refuses to start without a smack. No correlation with cd types unless it has something to do with how well they have been made. I tried cleaning and resetting the ribbons. No help. I can't think of another scenario except the laser assembly, which must have had a serious jolt whenever the UK post dropped it out of a plane
You will get an almost instant improvement with the BG on the opamps. Yes they do get better over time (but so did the pana fc in yours). BG take longer to run in when used for signal applications. For the op amp the four you change are on the 12V rails. Saying all BG take ages to run in is wrong, there are about 8 different types of BG and it also depends on your application. It's like saying all Panasonic caps take ages to run in, some may some may not.
If you have to bang your player to get it to read its the connectors.
Before you swap the laser I would hard wire between pcbs.
Brent
I stand corrected sir...well maybe a nice shiney new sharp laser will...I hope it comes with the connectors. On the photo it looks like. Now that you know how ignorant I am, you will not mind explaining what hard wiring between pcbs would look like (you wanna hold my hand?) I should really bow out of here. I'm just too inexperienced for this stuff. If you knew the kinds of hell I went thru soldering those caps you sent me
Did I hear you say 1500£ for a 63??? must be some kind of wonderful!
By the by, that Sony should be an interesting project. I kind of have a personal interest since it used to be mine! I have a feeling I'm going to be seriously jealous
Did I hear you say 1500£ for a 63??? must be some kind of wonderful!By the by, that Sony should be an interesting project. I kind of have a personal interest since it used to be mine! I have a feeling I'm going to be seriously jealous
LOL It could be a truly wonderful cd player (sony)
The connectors i'm refering too are the ones between the main pcb and the mech pcb. Hard wireing involves removing both connectors and ribbon. Then either solder individual wires from pcb to pcb or buy some ribbon cable that you can solder in.
Yes £1500 for a cd63. To be honest apart from the chips (servo , decoder and dac) the rest is pretty much my own work. 6 transformers and 13 low noise regs + about 30 BG caps.
Brent
The connectors i'm refering too are the ones between the main pcb and the mech pcb. Hard wireing involves removing both connectors and ribbon. Then either solder individual wires from pcb to pcb or buy some ribbon cable that you can solder in.
Yes £1500 for a cd63. To be honest apart from the chips (servo , decoder and dac) the rest is pretty much my own work. 6 transformers and 13 low noise regs + about 30 BG caps.
Brent
I've been looking at upgrading my caps for the +/- 20V rail. I have spent a few weeks looking up and researching all the different caps available for good smoothing and rectification. Also the physical size of the cap is important.
I have come up with a Black Gate K series from here HiFi Collective
CAP-9270 35V 2200uF VK 18mm*35mm apparently these pretty much remove all ac from the rail.
I may be ordering these very soon.
Brent
I have come up with a Black Gate K series from here HiFi Collective
CAP-9270 35V 2200uF VK 18mm*35mm apparently these pretty much remove all ac from the rail.
I may be ordering these very soon.
Brent
Brent that sounds beyond my ability. I'll just stick with what comes and hope the problem is solved. I should probably flush out the connectors on the board to insure they are clean. Like I said; law of diminishing returns...and it would be real easy for me to f...up something and have a dead player instead of a wonky one. By the by, that Sony is a pretty rare item. I don't know if you have resources to get the schematic. They were only made for two years I think. I know they were sold in the UK cause I've seen one for sale on e-bay recently. At least I assume they were from there. Beautiful machine; a sort of final blip before Sony stopped doing hi-end. (cdp 3000es) there was a 5000es model but it never got out of Japan). I don't know how this will hold up in stock version to recent machines, but I'm sure you can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse!
A SCH for a cd player is not really needed for upgrading so much. Its quite easy to follow a circuit from beginning to end.
All cd players follow the same route, its mainly down to quality differences.
I look forward to seeing this Sony. I remember repairing one once, it had a dodgy laser when it was under warranty.
Brent
All cd players follow the same route, its mainly down to quality differences.
I look forward to seeing this Sony. I remember repairing one once, it had a dodgy laser when it was under warranty.
Brent
Hi guys.
I am starting to feel guilty about asking so many questions without being able to help many people in return.
So, thanks Brent for the advice on the connectors... I hard wired my mech board in and it worked perfectly.
So I then decided to do the coax mod, which didn't work. I reverted back to the original state and it still wont work! I get err 13 Spindle error. I have tried to trace the fault, re-checked all solder joints etc and cannot find anything.
If anyone could help me (again) it will be VERY appreciated. Failing this I may have to save a little cash & drive to Doncaster with the thing for a pro to do.
Lee.
I am starting to feel guilty about asking so many questions without being able to help many people in return.
So, thanks Brent for the advice on the connectors... I hard wired my mech board in and it worked perfectly.
So I then decided to do the coax mod, which didn't work. I reverted back to the original state and it still wont work! I get err 13 Spindle error. I have tried to trace the fault, re-checked all solder joints etc and cannot find anything.
If anyone could help me (again) it will be VERY appreciated. Failing this I may have to save a little cash & drive to Doncaster with the thing for a pro to do.
Lee.
I am not very good or experienced with fault-finding, as you can tell.
I may start a new thread to gain knowledge from people like yourself who know what they're doing. I think it may be useful for inexperienced guys like me.
I also have another KI here and a '53 - do you do discount for bulk servicing? LOL.
Lee.
I may start a new thread to gain knowledge from people like yourself who know what they're doing. I think it may be useful for inexperienced guys like me.
I also have another KI here and a '53 - do you do discount for bulk servicing? LOL.
Lee.
Glenn2 said:
Hi Glenn,
Been quite busy lately, but I managed to listen to the latest mods for a few hours this week. The shuntregs are a good improvement in this player (8400). The sound has gained in detail and more quiet background (starts to sound familiar...). First I thought there was something 'missing' but after more careful listening I discovered it was the increased background-silence that caused it. And I just replaced the two standard DAC regs (3,3V and 5,4V, don't ask me why they used this voltage...) with shunts. Next step is to provide them with their own external PSU. Power is now shared with part of the servo electronics (yuk...). I'm going to insert a regulated 9V PSU of a few VA and see what happens....maybe one of those nice small toroidals they sell at Farnell
Regards,
Ray