Suggested mod's for 3 pieces of kit

[willie garvin]

Hi,

Having only just joined today, I hope I am posting this in the correct forum.

Firstly I should say that I am a 'non techie' but I have joined this site to possibly learn something from you all.

I have 3 HiFi items that I want some 'honest' answers on, I'm a big boy so I can take the pain should there be any!

I have an Esoteric SA60 universal disc player, Tag Mclaren pre amp & a Harman Kardon power amp.

At this moment in time the resulting 'sound' from these 3 items is ok by my ears, but I would be interested to know if there are any 'tweaks or mods' that could be done to any/all of these items.

Comments, as I have already said, are welcome, good, bad or just completely tell me to @*#+ *%#!!

Thanks, which ever way it goes.

willie garvin

[Mooly]

Hi Willie,
Well I had to google that one
Stereophile: Esoteric SA-60 universal player

I think I would want to see a full service manual and circuit before contemplating any mods on something like that.
The usual suspects come to mind of course... what opamps (if it even uses them as opposed to discrete) but it's wishful thinking sometimes to think that changing this or that is going to make sonic gains, and thinking "how could the manufacturer have been so careless".

You need to understand what you are looking at... and as a self confessed "non techie" I wouldn't advise it tbh.

The Tag Mclaren... again same applies... would have to have a good look at one on the bench or see a circuit. It might be full of NE5532 opamps or fully discrete.
Same for the Harmon

Perhaps if you posted the Harmons model number in a new thread in the solid state section, and the TM as well you might get some info.

As a general guide tweaking commercial gear usually involves updating or using more modern OpAmps... and they definitely do change sound quality subtly... but they have to be used correctly, you can not always just swap with no regard. Anything that's a few years old may benefit from top quality electroylitics being used to replace old ones (they do deteriorate... wet, chemical construction) and perhaps adding some carefully implemented rail decoupling... again it must be done right... to easy to slap caps here there and everywhere without understanding the implications.

Perhaps modding a cheaper CD player may be a good introduction to it all.

[willie garvin]

Hi Mooly,

Thanks for that reply, I was expecting to be told to #### off, so I really do appreciate your reply.

These might help,

TAG SPECS

PA20R

ESOTERIC SPECS

http://esoteric.teac.com/resources/p...0%28EF%29B.pdf

HARMAN SPECS

http://www.harmankardon.com/resources/Bran...PA2400%20om.pdf

I have a good friend who is a 'wizz kid' with electronics & has heavily modded my Marantz CD67SE, which now sounds fantastic.

But as I said I want to learn what can be done, my wizz kid friend might do the work, but I want to be there & learn!!

Thanks again.

willie

[Mooly]

Thanks for the links.
Like I mentioned before... it's the circuit details that you would need to know. See the TM mentions "discrete class a" so that implies no opamps.

The SA60 is a very upmarket machine, yet "maybe" compromised as an out and out audio player due to all the other processing on board.

Have you compared the CD67SE to the SA60 in your system ? Modding something like a mainstream Philips/Marantz gives some quite good gains sonically.

There is probably very little you could realistically do to the SA60. Does it use OpAmps ? Have you had the top off to look what's in there

[Mooly]

Well I found this showing an internal shot of the SA60, and while I'm sure it's a good machine, when it comes to audio the fact that it is a "universal" player means it's compromised... there's a huge amount of signal processing etc going on in there.
Internal view here,
6moons audio reviews: Esoteric SA60
Which is typical of modern production techniques... all surface mount technology. What you can't see is all the parts "underneath" the PCB's too.
There appear to be a couple of 8 legged I/C's near the output sockets (OpAmps maybe) but it's not clear enough to tell.

Unless you experienced working with surface mount then it all might end as tears at bedtime lol. It would be interesting to know though if they are OpAmps and if so what "variety"