Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story

[rikkert1978]

I received my unit today, its still in 1 piece but it soon will be chopped up

Having hooked it up using the headphone out to my amp, I can already hear that this transport can produce some very nice sounds indeed.

The PRaT is unlike I have heard from anything yet (even my cd-pro2 doesnt do this)
The bass is really good defined also, its weighty and has a nice coherent sound that has lots of detail. Kinda like a musical fidelity a5 cdp, only more organic.

I`m really curious what I can expect from the mods, especially if the PRaT factor will be even more evident or?

Atm I`m using a tda 1543 dac with I2S so I have to get a dac with spdif or something first before I can do some modifications.

[Pendergast]

Originally posted by thekop-bkk


Can u post pictures? Thanks...

Sure:

http://homepage.mac.com/angaq0k/PhotoAlbum14.html

This is unfinished, of course, but the tube amp should provide an idea of the finished cd player.

[okapi]

Pendergast,

some very nice pics. it is nice to see the DIY community is going strong in montreal. i would definitely like to have heard some of those speakers.

your cd player will look great finished in stone like the bottlehead amp. are you considering using any of that stone to assist with mass damping? right now, in as far as i can see from the pics, you still have only the mass of the CD mechanism. obviously the green grommets cannot support much more mass so you would need to move to a different suspension mech to support the increased mass.

what DAC are you using?

side note, i like your old bang and olufsen phone

[kevinkr]

Peter's suggestion of direct mounting the mechanism with no isolation bushings and just two mounting posts seems to work really well. In my case that is in conjunction with a 3/16" aluminum subchassis and two heavy blocks of AL bronze for additional mass. The entire thing must weigh over 12lbs at this point.

[Pendergast]

Originally posted by okapi
Pendergast,

some very nice pics. it is nice to see the DIY community is going strong in montreal. i would definitely like to have heard some of those speakers.

your cd player will look great finished in stone like the bottlehead amp. are you considering using any of that stone to assist with mass damping? right now, in as far as i can see from the pics, you still have only the mass of the CD mechanism. obviously the green grommets cannot support much more mass so you would need to move to a different suspension mech to support the increased mass.

what DAC are you using?

side note, i like your old bang and olufsen phone

Merci okapi!

What I might do is to move the transport on another sheet of plywood, and put it on top of three small blocks of rubbery foam (I got three types of the material) that I cut from kids footballs. It is rigid enough, yet quite flexible, so that might do the trick. I have to borrow a digital camera from a friend, and as I am still on a 56k line, that kind of documentation takes time.

So if you can picture it out, the base of the cd player will be quite thick.

I do not intend to add mass to the transport itself, but rather, to the base on which it will rest on. Thing is, I cannot measure jitter with my ears, nor do I have the instrumentation to research the various caveats this contraption may have.

The DAC is Peter Daniel's, packaged in 2 layers of slate stone (sides), a plywood bottom, and a top aluminum plate (resting on top, no attachment). I had the first version of the DAC from Peter, and plugged in a usb converter. There is a switch allowing for one input or the other.

The table the whole system it is on is quite rigid as well; it is from MAKE magazine (issue 9 or 10), and there are no screws or other attachments: the pieces fit together and ar easy to remove for transportation.

[DIAR]

Originally posted by Pendergast



Sure:

http://homepage.mac.com/angaq0k/PhotoAlbum14.html

This is unfinished, of course, but the tube amp should provide an idea of the finished cd player.

You seem to have some kind of pictures and assembly instructions on your table (picture: disembowelment one ). Are they for the transport? Where did you find them?

Edit: Found it!
http://tim.cheapo.cc/images/CD%20player%20mods.pdf
http://www.ferdsaudio.com/RC-EZ31.pdf

[superhkm]

Originally posted by MrMajestic



Oops, missed that option. Fixed it now.

Thanks a million Mattias. I will be swedish for the next three weeks.
Go Henke & Zlatan !!!!

I have gutted, I have found a fitting trafo, I have made the ps, (I have 8.13V), I have removed the three SMD caps ( the one partly under the heatshield was a pain ! ) and put it all together. But it won't perform.
The TOC switch works, it spins and checks, but when I try the remote or buttons on the control board nothing happens. The LCD displays says 00 and stays that way. Suggestions ?

Another thing, my trafo has dual seconderies, (2x12V)I am only using one.
I have bulit only a few PSs in my short and fragmented time as a DIYer, and still can't figure out how to make use of both pairs of seconderies in parallell. Can anyone point me to schematics showing this ?

[audio1st]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
Here's the PS schematic. I tried some popular regulators (LM317, LM2937, LT1086, LT1129) as well dual regulation and separate regulation for 5V. Nothing worked better for me than a single LM7808 from National.

I also tried few diode types, including 31DQ09 Schottkies that are supposedly used in Zanden, but again, MSR860 worked best.

Using BG STD 1000/25 after regulator is quite critical, before regulator you see BG FK 2200/35. I later switched to not available any longer BG F 1000/35 which provided more high frequency extention. You could use BG STD 1000/25 with BG N 4.7/50 bypass to compensate slight brightness but you may loose some liquidity and naturalness.

Other caps are also OK, feel free to experiment. What I present here is exactly what worked in my system (for me).

The TOC switch works, it spins and checks, but when I try the remote or buttons on the control board nothing happens. The LCD displays says 00 and stays that way. Suggestions ?

Check the ribbon that connects the laser...
Did you add the bridge cable?

[Zigis]

superhkm, PS schematic with 2x12 in post 6.

I have the same problem with reeding 00 and not playing after few modification and lose one small motor fixing screw.
Then I find small screw on thees strong magnets near laser. After removing screw all work.
Check magnets, maybe something metallic is there.

[superhkm]

Originally posted by audio1st





Check the ribbon that connects the laser...
Did you add the bridge cable?

The ribbon cable went in with blue marker down, exposed metal ribbons up.

The bridge cable is which cable ? The ribbon is the only connection to the control panel rigth now.