SONY CDP101 mods that brings new life to it(sound)

[atcgreg]

1. 
   [/list=1] I just renewed my 1984 Sony CDP101 with some straight forward mods like replacing the jelly bean opamp NE5532 in the buffer stage , maybe once it was great but nowadays it's not worth having it in anykind of audio project, I still wonder why it's used by some. I changed it to hi-end opamp made by National Semiconductor LME49720. Just doing that made the sony come alive with lot of "air" in the sound stage the trebles/mids were now life- like more analog sound , the bass still a bit smooth but with more control. Ture it is my subjective feeling but hearing is beliving. I also changed all the diodes in the power supply to Schottky 1N5819 and this mod made the music really stand out. So don't knock down the old school gear. With todays opamps and better quality parts it makes a huge difference. the whole upgrading took me couple of hours and the result is amazing.
   I will also change the voltage regulators to low noise ones because the generic 78XX 79XX give to much noise alone! and maybe the clock if i'll find a superclock with 33000Mhz. I like the sound of non-OS dac as for the shift that no one can hear it does not bother.
   
   Sony's first CD player is one of a kind and the upgrades i did and will do in the near future just makes it sound close to hi-end gear.
   I did a shoot out with a WADIA 301 and it was hard to decide which gave a better performance. The Wadia is better in details but with the future clock change and regs maybe the SONY will be second best. keep you posted .
   
   ps I can supply the schematics for free if anyone needs it.
   
   Greg

 

[Mooly]

This is interesting, I used to have a CDP101. Phase shift in the time shared DAC can cause a shift in the image BUT look carefully at the circuit for 101, around the opamp outputs. Going from memory now, as my manual is long gone, but the feedback resistors are unequal between left and right channels. One uses a 15k the other a 16k. It's not a misprint, that's what was actually fitted. Was it to centralise the image ? Been on several Sony courses and asked at the time... they didn't believe me, said it would just be a misprint. Not so going off what was fitted in mine. Got a Micromega ohh 15 yrs ago now....