Musical Fidelity A3 CD Player mods?

[itzibitzi]

Hi all,
I've just bought a second hand MF A3cd player. I would like to hear from others who has made it even better. I have taken some pictures of the inside, so maybe I can get some suggestions.
The overall sound is very open, dynamic (exept for the deepest bass). I like the way it plays "Forwarded". Reminds me of Naim cd players. But I think it sounds a bit to "hard" and lacks some analogue character. The first thing that comes to my mind, when i saw the player inside, was the "Teapo" Caps. Anyone knows, and like to comment them?
Maybe they are the problem...maybe they sound a bit like SMH caps, wich I find very Hardsounding and "machinery like"
I have modded an old Denon cd player once, with some Elna Cerafine, and Silmic II caps. They did exactly what the player needed. But of course, not all of the places. Some original caps were left, since they sounded better than the Elna's in their particular places.

Any suggestions are welcome
Regards Brian

[itzibitzi]

http://www.hifi4all.dk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53925

Pics of the Player inside.

Username Lectron= Me


Brian

[aleksandar]

Hi Brian


First of all am qute new in DIY but i can say am improveing since ive made several upgrades to Marantz cd6000 and Pm 7000.

Anyway i think that the first and chepaest option is to change the Op amps and also you can order free samples from analog devices as i did and ordered op275 but you will have to make some mail like brian@microsoft.com because if you have brian@yahoo.com they are not going to send them because they say its for technical purposes and not that they give away for DIY because they want to make money from us so u will have to use some other domain for hte mail.

Next step by my opinion is to put capacitors on pin 4 and 8 0.1uF 50v like Black Gate NX on the op amps but depends you can search the datasheet from the op amps that you will replace if they ask it put it, on op275 i put and there is no oscilation...............


Other step is but i dont see on the pictures is to put shottkey diodes they are cheap like 50 cents one or 1 euro.
Also i can see that you have for op amps so probably this is because they are single so you can replace them with AD825 also order them free from www.analog.com



Other sipmple and cheap mod is to put copper plate around the torroidal transformer, and also on the Hitachi HD74HC244P, HD74HC175P whatever function this chips have shield them probably htey are Dac but shield them with cooper to isolate the RF. Also phillips 74hc244n and other that are inside. I will post a picture.......

Upgrade the capacitors for power supply with some Rubycon Black Gates FK or nicchicon. Like you have Teapo two 2200 35v and two 1000uf 35v. Also you can change all other caps to gain some better result fro example yesterday ive put 2x Black Gate FK 2200 35v for power supply one Black Gate NX 2200 6.3v and black gate STD 4700 16v and the overall bass get much more depper.


Next step is to dampe the whole unit with bitumen. Usualy this material is used in car hi fi for damping the car but it will make the unit much stronger and less prone to vibrations. you can find the material in stores that sell car speakers, amplifiers and usualy they use Dinamat which is more expensive than other companies but its good, you can put dynamat original not the dynamat extreme because the extreme has alumimium foil.

Other mod but its expensive its to upgrade the clock and put power supply for the clock and add superregulators you can find this on www.audiocom.com.

You can replace the standard rca if you use nice signal cable, and if you replace hte rca you can connect them od the - with a coper brace so you will achive "zero impedance"


bye and happy moding

P.S the first thing that you will do is to clean the laser and the whole transport because by the pictures you have a lot of dirt for this you can use Teslanol IP www.teslanol.com

P - ISOPROPANOL
Activ cleaner Isopropanol

Application:
Active cleaner Isopropanol - 99,5% pure -
cleans e.g. video and audio heads, floppy disk
parts, rubber rolls and optical glassware.


Properties:
Isopropanol evaporates well and leaves
no residue.

it very cheap like 8 euros and you have 1L so you will use it 2354234 years and i think it doesent have expiriy date you you can pass it to your children and your children to their children................

[aleksandar]

The teslanol

[aleksandar]

You can see the copper bar between the rca outs

[aleksandar]

By the way you can buy componets from http://www.hificollective.co.uk/

and http://www.partsconnexion.com where i buy from, and hte gus are from canada also sign up for the stuff i think its called newsletters and they will send you offers that how i buy the new superclock 2 for 80 USD they also had superclock 3 for the same price but somebody got it before me


also for modification if your player uses muteing transistors which 99% it uses remove them also you will get litle noise when you power and shitch the unit off but this is normal and it doesent harms nothing but i suggest that you dont swich off at all also u can use rellay there i think that was the correct name

[itzibitzi]

Hi Aleksander,
Thx for your reply's It gave me something to begin with. I have also got some ideas from other people, who would like to help. But for now I'm a little confused by al the input's, and ideas. Some has recomended that I should install a DIY dac inside the chassis, cause there's enough space. Then I can "leave" the original dac untouched. It's easier to sell a machine, when it's not modified, you know. The new DIY dac is made totally diskreet, with no Op-Amps and so. So it's a class-A Dac. In my ears, it sounds like a very good idea. The cost of the DAC is also very low, and it even has it's own power supply.

If i choose not to install a new DAC, i can certainly use the ideas you gave me.
THX Again Aleksander.

Regards Brian

[ninety]

Interesting ideas , I just got one used myself , some good insight! On a side note, my player has a square cutout at the bottom left center , would anybody know why ?

[aleksandar]

Hi ninety the cutout was probably for noise filter or for some cables but its strange because if you buy the player second hand why the guy take for example the noise filter out since that part is cheap

anyway post a picture.............


here is the noise filter

[aleksandar]

here is a player without noise filter