Simon Hi
This is great.
I have an Alpha which I always preferred to the 5.
I too have the buzzing tx hence me fiddling on with the 5 instead - got fed up trying new tie straps and shims to shut it up.
The tx you replaced it with, is it a +24 0 -24v job ?
I have the service manual and it implies 24 volts.
What VA rating did you use please ?
looks an easy swap.
Thanks for the link to this thread !
Andrew
I don't know what VA rating the transformer is but from the size I'd say maybe 40 or 50. I think I have one spare if would like to part with say £9 (posted). It's a high quality potted Avel Lindberg job. I can look up specs later if you'd like to find one elsewhere. The swap is really easy and REALLY worthwhile. The sound is better and the buzzing makes the player worthless.
Simon Hi
That's very kind of you and yes please, I'll have it.
Did you also complete the NOS conversion and was it worth it ?
It's a long story but I first had the Alhpa 5 plus that had already been modded to hell, SM bypass cap's on all the upgraded electrolytics, also on the TDA1541a caps and tant's and also across the 4 pin tx inlet ( that sit's on the legs from the monoboard ) NONOS using bits of straight wire across the now removed SAA7220 connecting the usual 1-18, 2-16 and 3-15 plus a link between pins 9 and 11 ....that was it. No evidence of any
other links or wire, believe me I've checked the lot.
It worked beautifully, no clicks with mutes out or de emphasis tranny's out.
I fitted 627's to I/V and Audio GD Sun's as ouput stage and finally big polyprops.
A drop in gain was noticeable compared to my other CD player but it was sounding very good.
Fitted a clock ( another step up ) and then after a few months it unexpectedly burned out some resistors and I lost some tracks around the reg's of the DAC board.
Binned, well not quite but was I unhappy ?
Then I bought the straight old Alhpa and was totally blown away by it.
How the hell could an 80's machine sound like this ?
Love affair has now started....then the buzz - how many times I tried to
shut it up I can't tell you.
Picked up an Alhpa 5 two weeks ago and pulled the DAC board to fit to my old 5 plus - it worked but sounded like sh..
A few cheap tweaks and it's smoothing out a bit but absolutely no where near as good as the stock Alpha - how bizarre is that ?.
I'm more than keen to give it some TLC and some upgrades - the transport seems better, the case is much stronger and the DAC board looks higher quality.
I'm surprised there has not been more about this machine as a modding project.
What you've done proves that it's not just me that thinks it a worthy bit of kit.
It's hard to imagine how your machine sounds with all that work you've done
there but for me in standard form it was about bass control and sound stage ..which was a real shock.
I imagine yours probably sounds like a top Naim machine maybe ?
Hope that is not an insult ?
Not meant - the good ones are extremely good, you'll know that anyway.
If your not asleep yet I'll be poring over your upgrade thread quite a lot in the hope I can understand it and finally - I'm very happy with your offer
Thanks
Andrew
That's very kind of you and yes please, I'll have it.
Did you also complete the NOS conversion and was it worth it ?
It's a long story but I first had the Alhpa 5 plus that had already been modded to hell, SM bypass cap's on all the upgraded electrolytics, also on the TDA1541a caps and tant's and also across the 4 pin tx inlet ( that sit's on the legs from the monoboard ) NONOS using bits of straight wire across the now removed SAA7220 connecting the usual 1-18, 2-16 and 3-15 plus a link between pins 9 and 11 ....that was it. No evidence of any
other links or wire, believe me I've checked the lot.
It worked beautifully, no clicks with mutes out or de emphasis tranny's out.
I fitted 627's to I/V and Audio GD Sun's as ouput stage and finally big polyprops.
A drop in gain was noticeable compared to my other CD player but it was sounding very good.
Fitted a clock ( another step up ) and then after a few months it unexpectedly burned out some resistors and I lost some tracks around the reg's of the DAC board.
Binned, well not quite but was I unhappy ?
Then I bought the straight old Alhpa and was totally blown away by it.
How the hell could an 80's machine sound like this ?
Love affair has now started....then the buzz - how many times I tried to
shut it up I can't tell you.
Picked up an Alhpa 5 two weeks ago and pulled the DAC board to fit to my old 5 plus - it worked but sounded like sh..
A few cheap tweaks and it's smoothing out a bit but absolutely no where near as good as the stock Alpha - how bizarre is that ?.
I'm more than keen to give it some TLC and some upgrades - the transport seems better, the case is much stronger and the DAC board looks higher quality.
I'm surprised there has not been more about this machine as a modding project.
What you've done proves that it's not just me that thinks it a worthy bit of kit.
It's hard to imagine how your machine sounds with all that work you've done
there but for me in standard form it was about bass control and sound stage ..which was a real shock.
I imagine yours probably sounds like a top Naim machine maybe ?
Hope that is not an insult ?
Not meant - the good ones are extremely good, you'll know that anyway.
If your not asleep yet I'll be poring over your upgrade thread quite a lot in the hope I can understand it and finally - I'm very happy with your offer
Thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Apologies for the slow response, I've been out and about a lot this weekend.
I never did do a NOS conversion because people I trust advised me it was a waste of time compared to upgrading the SAA7220's supply and re-clocking all the chips, which is probably the only true high end solution with these players. The NOS trick sounds like something to do if the budget or skills and parts available are a bit restricted but if you're going all-out to make a great-sounding machine it's not the way forward.
With respect to the Arcam Alpha 5, well I've noticed it's a popular machine with a fairly naff looking front like the others in the range... and of course used the famous and desirable chipset. I always wondered how different it was inside from the Alpha and how far apart the players came chronologically and price-wise. Any light you can shed on this would be quite interesting to me.
OPA627 is a fine op-amp in my opinion, but it's still a long way off the discrete solutions. Audio-Gd stuff I've seen a bit of and it offers superb value for money. Their op-amp modules appear to be clones or at least similar to the Australian company Burson's stuff.
It's a gutting thing to have a player die on you like that, I know the feeling too well
Apologies for the slow response, I've been out and about a lot this weekend.
I never did do a NOS conversion because people I trust advised me it was a waste of time compared to upgrading the SAA7220's supply and re-clocking all the chips, which is probably the only true high end solution with these players. The NOS trick sounds like something to do if the budget or skills and parts available are a bit restricted but if you're going all-out to make a great-sounding machine it's not the way forward.
With respect to the Arcam Alpha 5, well I've noticed it's a popular machine with a fairly naff looking front like the others in the range... and of course used the famous and desirable chipset. I always wondered how different it was inside from the Alpha and how far apart the players came chronologically and price-wise. Any light you can shed on this would be quite interesting to me.
OPA627 is a fine op-amp in my opinion, but it's still a long way off the discrete solutions. Audio-Gd stuff I've seen a bit of and it offers superb value for money. Their op-amp modules appear to be clones or at least similar to the Australian company Burson's stuff.
It's a gutting thing to have a player die on you like that, I know the feeling too well
I agree with your sentiments towards the Alpha. I also wondered why it sounded so good, but the nice layout of the audio board and that being fed by a dedicated transformer shed some light on it. Then there's the use of the SAA7220P/B filter chip and the A version of the DAC. The transport is also quite highly thought of, so all in all it's not so surpising it sounds well. The op-amps may not be the best anymore but they thought to use different singles for different jobs rather than just a couple of duals. The filter caps in the output stage look to be of decent quality too. It all adds up!
Like you I'm surprised there is little interest in mods for this superb machine. Mine does sound quite good but I'd rather try not to overstate it. I've only heard a top-end Naim once and it's hard to know exactly which parts of the system were bringing what to the party so I don't want to comment. I will say, though, that my standards are pretty high and this two-box monster does make good music. The bass output is superb, the dynamics are considerable and the correctness (timbre) of vocals and other important instruments is very pleasing.
The treble output is nice but probably not first-rate. Likewise the imaging and maybe some other fine points like the overall fluidity/smoothness of the thing. I've been told that some DEM reclocking will lift things in those departments so it's not over yet. I also want to upgrade my main clock as I know there's more to be had in that department.
Needless to say it's capable of making hairs on the neck stand to attention and shaking the room with deep accurate bass with absolutely no harshness - on a good CD.
I will e-mail you about the transformer.
Simon
Like you I'm surprised there is little interest in mods for this superb machine. Mine does sound quite good but I'd rather try not to overstate it. I've only heard a top-end Naim once and it's hard to know exactly which parts of the system were bringing what to the party so I don't want to comment. I will say, though, that my standards are pretty high and this two-box monster does make good music. The bass output is superb, the dynamics are considerable and the correctness (timbre) of vocals and other important instruments is very pleasing.
The treble output is nice but probably not first-rate. Likewise the imaging and maybe some other fine points like the overall fluidity/smoothness of the thing. I've been told that some DEM reclocking will lift things in those departments so it's not over yet. I also want to upgrade my main clock as I know there's more to be had in that department.
Needless to say it's capable of making hairs on the neck stand to attention and shaking the room with deep accurate bass with absolutely no harshness - on a good CD.
I will e-mail you about the transformer.
Simon
Simon Hi
I've done the +5 rail on the SAA7220 with it's own reg and a couple of caps and there is a significant difference to the sound in keeping with your findings.
Ok, I'm a long way off your level but with all the diodes now replaced to uf's, all the mono board caps replaced and some Oscons where it matters it's coming along nicely.
Your transformer for the DAC supply in my machine ( pun coming )..... transformed the sound quite surprisingly - thanks again for this sale.
The case was already heavily damped with bitumen pads and stiffened on the base with 18 mm of well painted mdf but damping the transport as you and Paul already did also seems to have helped somewhat.
Could you talk me through adding +5 v regs in other critical areas or in which bring about the real noticeable improvemenst, like the 7220?
Many thanks
Andrew
I've done the +5 rail on the SAA7220 with it's own reg and a couple of caps and there is a significant difference to the sound in keeping with your findings.
Ok, I'm a long way off your level but with all the diodes now replaced to uf's, all the mono board caps replaced and some Oscons where it matters it's coming along nicely.
Your transformer for the DAC supply in my machine ( pun coming )..... transformed the sound quite surprisingly - thanks again for this sale.
The case was already heavily damped with bitumen pads and stiffened on the base with 18 mm of well painted mdf but damping the transport as you and Paul already did also seems to have helped somewhat.
Could you talk me through adding +5 v regs in other critical areas or in which bring about the real noticeable improvemenst, like the 7220?
Many thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Everything should run off its own voltage regulator but some changes will give more noticeable gains than others. You've done the number one thing, and the DAC already has its own almost-dedicated voltage rails in this player. The -5 and +5 are dedicated at least, the -15 is shared with the output op-amps. It's not the end of the world.
I would suggest treating the decoder chip to a dedicated reg next, and if you're feeding all of these off the same 6800uF smoothing cap then you should make that cap a nice big one. It will pay dividends.
I'd probably stick a 7805 on the RAM chip next. Because this is a low-power chip and the decoder on this model is the small surface-mount SAA7310 (rather than huge power-guzzling SAA7210) heatsinks won't likely be needed. Lift 3601 and feed the new reg there for the decoder. 3609 feeds the RAM.
The audible gains will start to taper off now but you should still do these mods. Soon you must add a low-jitter clock to really hear what this machine wants to do!
Simon
Everything should run off its own voltage regulator but some changes will give more noticeable gains than others. You've done the number one thing, and the DAC already has its own almost-dedicated voltage rails in this player. The -5 and +5 are dedicated at least, the -15 is shared with the output op-amps. It's not the end of the world.
I would suggest treating the decoder chip to a dedicated reg next, and if you're feeding all of these off the same 6800uF smoothing cap then you should make that cap a nice big one. It will pay dividends.
I'd probably stick a 7805 on the RAM chip next. Because this is a low-power chip and the decoder on this model is the small surface-mount SAA7310 (rather than huge power-guzzling SAA7210) heatsinks won't likely be needed. Lift 3601 and feed the new reg there for the decoder. 3609 feeds the RAM.
The audible gains will start to taper off now but you should still do these mods. Soon you must add a low-jitter clock to really hear what this machine wants to do!
Simon
Hi Simon
I notice the digi out cable is removed from the 7220 on your machine
and you seem to have used the old RCA socket hole to feed cable in from the offboard PS.
I've looked at this before and wondered it it worth whipping off.
I won't use an offboard DAC now or in the future so is it safe to just
unsolder and remove ?
Andrew
I notice the digi out cable is removed from the 7220 on your machine
and you seem to have used the old RCA socket hole to feed cable in from the offboard PS.
I've looked at this before and wondered it it worth whipping off.
I won't use an offboard DAC now or in the future so is it safe to just
unsolder and remove ?
Andrew
Hi All,
I use my 19 year old alfa as a transport and I wonder what are the must do modifications to enhance the performance?
I run a Moon 300D which produces some nice tunes but I guess it would be nice to give it as good signal as possible.
Any suggestions appreciated for an amateur modder.
/Mike
I use my 19 year old alfa as a transport and I wonder what are the must do modifications to enhance the performance?
I run a Moon 300D which produces some nice tunes but I guess it would be nice to give it as good signal as possible.
Any suggestions appreciated for an amateur modder.
/Mike
If you're using an off-board DAC I'd suggest selling the Arcam on and using a quiet pc as your source, which will sound better and not skip so much.
Otherwise, I'm sure you can't go wrong with replacing all the old electrolytic caps and possibly even regulating the servo chips as I did. You could also make sure the laser output power is set correctly.
Simon
Otherwise, I'm sure you can't go wrong with replacing all the old electrolytic caps and possibly even regulating the servo chips as I did. You could also make sure the laser output power is set correctly.
Simon
I got pretty radical with my alpha
Hi Simon, - great thread. I am amazed how many times I find myself following your path.
I got interested in the Alpha due to interest in the Lampizator site. It peaked my interest in the tda1541a. One came up on ebay from a seller right here in Toronto, Canada where I live. Rest is history. I grabbed the alpha and built a 6np2 based output stage. As I was working, at some point I screwed up the mono board. Rather than fix it,I made the Apha into a super USB DAC by scrapping the CD and mono and adding a very nice Peter Daniel USB DAC as the digital front end. Basically grab the I2S signal from the PD DAC, straight into the ARCAM audio board for a NOS USB DAC.
I have not replaced the audio transformer, so thanks for this tip.
On the audio board, I replaced the big electrolytics with BG STD and BG NK. Then, every small electrolytic with Sanyo OsCon SEPC 100uf 16v. Very nice.
I pick up the signal right off the dac chip straight to the triodes. Sound will likely be much like your PASS output. Bypassing the crappy opamps is hudge. One big improvement I am sure you have done is to kill everything downstream of the DAC. basically cut off every resistor, cap and transistor past the dac. Start with R1, R101 right on thorugh to kill power and distortion coming from op amps, transistors etc. Big jump in clarity. Don't miss the Mute section over by the main power supply. All that is left is the power supply and dac chip. everything else is disconnected from the circuit.
Last thing I did for vibration control was to mount the USB and DAC boards on wood, then filled some old cotton socks with sand, and lay them in around in any open spaces around the boards. Now with 5 transformers and sand, this thing is seriously heavy. I just set it on bubble wrap to isolate it from the world. Another significant jump.
The other thing that helps is clean power supply and a good cord. I have an isolation transformer, and filters in my main amp, and the arcam gets power from there.
I will cahnge the transformer and consider the diodes if you think that will help.
Overall sound is liquid smooth with incredible 3D sound stage wider than speakers and 20 feet deep. Symbols shimmer and bells ring. Silence is deep. Incredible space and air. I can't stop listening to this thing.
Hi Simon, - great thread. I am amazed how many times I find myself following your path.
I got interested in the Alpha due to interest in the Lampizator site. It peaked my interest in the tda1541a. One came up on ebay from a seller right here in Toronto, Canada where I live. Rest is history. I grabbed the alpha and built a 6np2 based output stage. As I was working, at some point I screwed up the mono board. Rather than fix it,I made the Apha into a super USB DAC by scrapping the CD and mono and adding a very nice Peter Daniel USB DAC as the digital front end. Basically grab the I2S signal from the PD DAC, straight into the ARCAM audio board for a NOS USB DAC.
I have not replaced the audio transformer, so thanks for this tip.
On the audio board, I replaced the big electrolytics with BG STD and BG NK. Then, every small electrolytic with Sanyo OsCon SEPC 100uf 16v. Very nice.
I pick up the signal right off the dac chip straight to the triodes. Sound will likely be much like your PASS output. Bypassing the crappy opamps is hudge. One big improvement I am sure you have done is to kill everything downstream of the DAC. basically cut off every resistor, cap and transistor past the dac. Start with R1, R101 right on thorugh to kill power and distortion coming from op amps, transistors etc. Big jump in clarity. Don't miss the Mute section over by the main power supply. All that is left is the power supply and dac chip. everything else is disconnected from the circuit.
Last thing I did for vibration control was to mount the USB and DAC boards on wood, then filled some old cotton socks with sand, and lay them in around in any open spaces around the boards. Now with 5 transformers and sand, this thing is seriously heavy. I just set it on bubble wrap to isolate it from the world. Another significant jump.
The other thing that helps is clean power supply and a good cord. I have an isolation transformer, and filters in my main amp, and the arcam gets power from there.
I will cahnge the transformer and consider the diodes if you think that will help.
Overall sound is liquid smooth with incredible 3D sound stage wider than speakers and 20 feet deep. Symbols shimmer and bells ring. Silence is deep. Incredible space and air. I can't stop listening to this thing.
Hi, it sounds like you've made a real beast of a DAC box there. I've probably left a bit of the original output stage in place. I tried running both at the same time so I could easily A-B them but it doesn't work, the op-amps interfere with the Pass stage and it doesn't work properly. I will have a look at removing more stuff from the output board when I next go in. The only real reason I have for doing so is to upgrade the cheap caps I put on the DAC's PSU.
I've not tried an isolation transformer on this player because I'm listening in a small room and would hear the hummm, but I was pleased by the improvements gained in doing this with my previous cd player.
I think I have a tiny bit of grain to the sound that can be squeezed out so I'll have to get tweaking my Alpha again some day. Some better psu caps for the DAC and better clocking should just about complete it.
Oh and I realised the other day I'm using a standard power cord on the main box (upgraded one on the external supplies) so there's room for a tiny improvement there I think.
Simon
I've not tried an isolation transformer on this player because I'm listening in a small room and would hear the hummm, but I was pleased by the improvements gained in doing this with my previous cd player.
I think I have a tiny bit of grain to the sound that can be squeezed out so I'll have to get tweaking my Alpha again some day. Some better psu caps for the DAC and better clocking should just about complete it.
Oh and I realised the other day I'm using a standard power cord on the main box (upgraded one on the external supplies) so there's room for a tiny improvement there I think.
Simon
Thanks Simon,
I changed some caps, dampened the transport as suggested elsewhere in this forum and put a BNC connector on the dig out. It really made some difference so much that it bettered the streaming over USB.
Kindly could you tell me what regulators to change and what brand? Also how do I check the and regulate the laser output power?
I know how to solder but I have limited knowledge in electronics.
Any suggestion is highly appreciated.
/Mikael
I changed some caps, dampened the transport as suggested elsewhere in this forum and put a BNC connector on the dig out. It really made some difference so much that it bettered the streaming over USB.
Kindly could you tell me what regulators to change and what brand? Also how do I check the and regulate the laser output power?
I know how to solder but I have limited knowledge in electronics.
Any suggestion is highly appreciated.
/Mikael
Hi Mikael,
Good to hear your mods have reaped some rewards. Regarding regulators, I wouldn't bother changing any as such, but you'll want to consider adding a dedicated regulator for each of the decoder (SAA7310) and digital filter (SAA7220). LM317 would be better than generic 7805 and super regulators would be much better still. An example would be: Fidelity Audio SPOWER low noise Voltage Regulators which are a very, very good example of a super regulator. The output FET will need to be heatsinked on the regulator supplying the SAA7220 as this chip draws a lot of current.
You should also consider reclocking the SAA7210 and SAA7220. Your digital output would now be getting pretty awesome I think.
I haven't yet set my laser power but I do need to try (I get skipping a lot). There are, however, clear instructions for doing this using a test disc and volt-meter - given on page 11 of the service manual
Simon
Good to hear your mods have reaped some rewards. Regarding regulators, I wouldn't bother changing any as such, but you'll want to consider adding a dedicated regulator for each of the decoder (SAA7310) and digital filter (SAA7220). LM317 would be better than generic 7805 and super regulators would be much better still. An example would be: Fidelity Audio SPOWER low noise Voltage Regulators which are a very, very good example of a super regulator. The output FET will need to be heatsinked on the regulator supplying the SAA7220 as this chip draws a lot of current.
You should also consider reclocking the SAA7210 and SAA7220. Your digital output would now be getting pretty awesome I think.
I haven't yet set my laser power but I do need to try (I get skipping a lot). There are, however, clear instructions for doing this using a test disc and volt-meter - given on page 11 of the service manual
Simon
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