Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story

Very nice Erik!!

The only thing that will require some attention is the stop switch, since I was thinking to place the motors tightly inside wood to further reduce their vibration.


This is how I do it...only I use copper....maybe it gives you ideas...;)
(you see the inlet for the laser-stop-switch as well)

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While I have my Test CD Board at hand now to try things out before implementing in my PiTbull Reference Transport I thought it was time to find out what the C906 position was all about in a more detailed way.

I knew that my Wondercap bettered the standard elco in the past but time I took more time to evaluate a well known bunch of caps.

All of them 0.01 uf since I tested this value in the past and delivered the best performance/sound ratio.

The contestants.....

Standard No Name (on the board)
Multicap
Wondercap
Mundorf Silver Gold
Studio Zey
Alexander Duelund
 
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Okay here my (personal) account...

The standard no name elco on C906 sounded the worst .....a bit deadening compared to the cap contestants (maybe the difference between elco and cap by definition ? )

The Multicap played a bit more livelier than the standard.

The Wonder Cap sounded a bit better than the Multicap (my present standard on the board is Wondercap) but not by a wide margin.

The Mundorf silver/gold played again the best of these four...

So this Mundorf had to be compared to the Studio Zey Cap, well this cap outperformed the Mundorf and the difference was better noticeable than all the other comparisons so far.

The big surprise for me finally came from the Alexander Duelund...this little devil (compared to the size of Zey) did not give way and topped them all by being the most musical of them all.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.



So my clear choice...................were it not that I ordered his famous brother straight away to compare......I know that this is getting out of hand because for this cap's asking price in the recent past one could buy 12 boomboxes ahum...yes 12.....Erik you are sick...there I said it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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Shure no problem.

No names, famous brands, expensive, cheap-as-hell, easy bought, limited editions, I do not really care....I only listen and decide ....mind you I decide for myself....;)

What I do know is that expensive parts are in the majority a better choice...but the fun is trying to prove the opposite every now and then .:judge:

And lets face it the standard boombox is one of those proven examples.
 
Good to see you in action again Erik! It's always a pleasure to watch your work, your dedication is astonishing :)

Also, great to see my cap up there with the best! :) Duelund Alexander was also my favourite of all commercial caps that I tried. I thought my cap and Alexander actually sounded very similar in many ways, and I had a hard time deciding between the two at first. Although after many swaps I ultimately preferred mine (well, obviously! :D). However, I will admit that Alexander is slightly better in detail and soundstaging, it's kind of more "correct". It's a great cap all-round, no doubt. It's just music from my cap was more engaging, moving, with more emotions... And since these are the qualities I personally value most, I kept my cap in.

Please do let us know the results of the CAST audition, this is sure going to be interesting! (if largely useless for most of us - kind of like a review of the new McLaren ;))
 
Dimkasta, hi

Is this an alternative?

Teflon Capacitors : 15nF / 1600V Russian Teflon K72

Thanks

It is similar family but not the same. I think the main difference was in their casing.
The brothers are FT1, FT2 and FT3. I do not know how it might work, although K72 is well regarded too as a coupling cap. Try to google "capacitor orgy" to find a thread with info about all of them, but as dc coupling caps.
 
Boy do I have a treat for you...

I was experimenting with a schematic submitted by 6L6 for his SL1200 mod and I was curious.... Today I got the parts so I quickly soldered together the prefilter. However my SL1200 is currently completely disassembled and I was really curious to test it, so my shiga became a test bed and....voila...

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On the left you can see my PSU tester. It is currently providing a Salas for the digital stuff, and has alternatives between a Salas, a 7808 and the above prefilter for the motors. Currently only the prefilter and the 7808 stuff are connected.

The schematic as posted by 6L6 is this

SLPSU_zps2831b828.jpg


I just used 10.000uF caps instead of 4700uF ones.

The result is beyond my expectations. It s 1AM here and I cannot stop listening to music...

In two words, it is like getting bigger and better speakers. Most of the previous changes I described was more or less clarity changes and spatial information related.
With the prefilter in, the entire spectrum of frequencies and volumes seem to have benefited tremendously.
Lower sounds now have a very distinct presence filling the void and louder ones seem to bloom from within that lower register sound bed.
Bass is very controlled and has a very clear place and direction in the room, while mids and highs have incredible texture and presence.
I know using those big words is a bit high-end-crapish, but I really do not know how else to describe what I am hearing.
The simplest way I can put this is that I feel like my speakers got BIGGER and BETTER.
Not to mention that the caps and diodes are completely fresh and just soldered, so I would expect some more stuff as the thing breaks in.
But... oh my!!!!
Oh and I can hear better now in lower volume setting on my preamp.

I will now try to put together the 317 psu 6L6 posted on the same thread and give it a try. Here is the 21V as he posted it based on an idea from here
Using 3-pin regulators off-piste: part 1

SL-1200LM317reg_zps753e9309.jpg


The difference is I will be using just a couple of small leds for the reference.
 

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Boy do I have a treat for you...

I was experimenting with a schematic submitted by 6L6 for his SL1200 mod and I was curious.... Today I got the parts so I quickly soldered together the prefilter. However my SL1200 is currently completely disassembled and I was really curious to test it, so my shiga became a test bed and....voila...

The schematic as posted by 6L6 is this

SLPSU_zps2831b828.jpg


I just used 10.000uF caps instead of 4700uF ones.

The result is beyond my expectations. It s 1AM here and I cannot stop listening to music...

Isn't this essentially an extended CRC filter? What was your previous setup? Just to make sure I got this right: you are using this filter before an LM7808 that feeds your motors only?
 
Isn't this essentially an extended CRC filter? What was your previous setup? Just to make sure I got this right: you are using this filter before an LM7808 that feeds your motors only?

Exactly. Just a CRC filter right before the normal 7808 reg as it was used in the shigaclone, and it feeds motors only.

I also made the 317 reg, but I could not listen to it properly because it was very late.
 
First impressions from the 317 reg are a bit negative. To be fair, with the 7808 I had a cap right on the entrance of the pcb and all of it had the chance to break in properly.
TOC reading is slower too, and seems to reset and execute twice before it is ready for playback. Not a good indication at all.

I will let it break in for a week or so and come back to you. In the meantime, I need to get a 6.7V zener since now with the 6.8V one I am getting around 8,15V which is a bit high, and I need to get a non-low ESR cap for the output, and place it again right on the entrance of the pcb again. Now I am using a Panasonic FC at 1000uF which is not optimal as choice by any means.

I am also working on the dual 317 thingy where one 317 handles ripple, and the second handles voltage fluctuations coming from the load.
That should be really interesting with such a reactive load.