Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story

[Algar_emi]

Recycling the EZ31B's. Removing parts from these units left over a huge amount of scrap. Just to let you know that I try to recycle as much as I can. I removed all metal parts from the plastics, separated all metal and plastic type, recycled the packaging, etc. It takes a long time to do it, but at least, the left overs don't go straight to the garbage. I'll try to give for free (just pay the shipping) all the little 3.5" speakers, maybe for a little line-array speaker project.

[okapi]

a few weeks back i put together a little spreadsheet to calculate the resonant frequency of a spring from mcmaster carr data.

the MS excel file can be found here

the cells that require data entry can be altered the others are protected/locked.

this is far from my area of expertise so those more familiar with these types of calculations may want to double check my work.

a group buy on springs may not work as i would expect that the weight of different chassis could vary quite significantly.

my impression is that with a large enough mass it should be possible to get the resonant frequency under 10hz.

i expect that damping the springs as peter did will also change the resonant frequency.

[hayenc]

The magic smoke yesterday turned out to be C950, a 1000uf 10V electrolytic at the input of the transport. Easy decision on not keeping that one.

Rebuilt the power supply with larger heat sink on 8 volt regulator, replaced bad regulator that finally blew and the capacitor that went with it, or maybe the other way around, who knows.

Bottom line, the transport itself survived and now sounds great. Using a modified PS board from a not to be named DIY circuit that had a bad flaw. This board has two supplies so am running the 8 volts on one and the 6 V and 12 V on the other. The 8 V has 2200 uf before and 2x 1000 uf post reg, all Nichicon Muse. Nice punch, nice extension.

Back to replacing other parts like the crystal and working on a case.

[JC Fardo]

Originally posted by Algar_emi
Only 3 units left already.

MrMajestic I have a friend in Europe (Netherland) looking for the EZ31. Send me an email, I'll make you in contact with him. He may buy your extra unit.

Hi

YGM

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by hayenc
The magic smoke yesterday turned out to be C950, a 1000uf 10V electrolytic at the input of the transport. Easy decision on not keeping that one.

Rebuilt the power supply with larger heat sink on 8 volt regulator, replaced bad regulator that finally blew and the capacitor that went with it, or maybe the other way around, who knows.

Bottom line, the transport itself survived and now sounds great. Using a modified PS board from a not to be named DIY circuit that had a bad flaw. This board has two supplies so am running the 8 volts on one and the 6 V and 12 V on the other. The 8 V has 2200 uf before and 2x 1000 uf post reg, all Nichicon Muse. Nice punch, nice extension.

Back to replacing other parts like the crystal and working on a case.

hi hayenc,
I'm going to assume that the voltage regulator was bad to start with and C950 exploded because there was substantially more than 10V across it..

FWIW I have found that mine '32 sounds significantly better with the stock capacitor in that location than without it, this even being the case with standard Black Gate caps in the psu. I tried several different types in the supply, but can hear a definite improvement with the BG. (This with about 7" of kimber tcss wire between the supply output and the mechanism.) I'd recommend getting a few of at least the 16V std BG for this location - it's more audible than you might suspect. For C950 you might want to try something similar to the original in that location and see if you can hear a difference.

This thing sounds really good.

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by Ed LaFontaine
Can you provide us with the wire size, turns per inch (or ahem, turns per unit length) and diameter? Those things will go along way towards obtaining similar springs locally. Are your springs closed or open ended?

The springs I'm using presently are 1" diameter:



I found them locally in Brofasco, they are pretty stiff (compress no more than 0.1" under load). The damping material inside is SPECDYN- 56061 Deflex Sheet from Partsconnexion.

[hayenc]

This thing sounds really good.

Kevin,

We definitely agree on that one. I had built a little divider off the 6 v supply to bias the transistor and turn on the relay and other voltages, but it appears I must not have loaded the 8 v reg enough in testing, or I had a premature cap failure that took out the reg. Either way, at least the transport was not really hurt and this thing does sound really good.

Will play with caps once the order shows up.

Craig

[luvdunhill]

just ordered some of that damping material, believe it or not... now, need to find some springs

[JC Fardo]

Originally posted by audio1st
Just finished installing the display (stressful). I would recommend you build the enclosure big enough to fit the original board in.

Not up to Peters standard, mostly Panasonic FC's used throughout. Haven't changed the oscillator yet, can't seem to find the right frequency in UK. Used a Vishay 1830 for the 10nF. Digital out resistors are old, no idea of make, non magnetic 110r and 110r. Used a white LED with 4.7k for display, connected before voltage regulator. Switches are (ON) OFF (ON) type for Play-Stop and Next-Prev. The top is part of a circular, bamboo chopping board. Base was a photo frame.
I must say it sounds really good to me in my humble system.
Thanks again to Peter for all his testing and info

audio1st

Congratulations. Nice bamboo job.

Please inform:

What is "photo frame" . I´m not familiar to this expression
Did you use springs under mechanism?
What is total height, floor to clamp of your player?
Thanks

[luvdunhill]

Originally posted by JC Fardo
What is "photo frame" . I´m not familiar to this expression

a picture frame, or something that decorates the perimeter of a photograph or artwork.