Arcam Alfa transport mod?

[MiL]

Hi All,

I have an original Arcam alfa cd player (1992) that I would like to use as a transport! Can I remove the D/A section without upsetting the transport function? How can I mod the transport to better performance if possible?

All suggestions welcome!

/Mikael

[Bill Fuss]

I don't know what's in there but sure, you should be able to. It could use new PS caps to start with. A precision clock and reclocking the SPDIF would be in order. Change to BNCs if it has RCA dig out, and quality cable.

You should get tons of suggestions.

[MiL]

Thanks Bill!

/Mikael

[amc184]

Are you talking about the Arcam Alpha that looks like the picture I've posted? If so, removing the DAC section isn't really going to help in this case, as it has it's own power supply and is pretty independent of everything else. You can remove it though, the rest of the player will work just fine (I know this for a fact, I've forgotten to reconnect some of the cables in my Alpha before).

As for upgrades, Bill is right on the money, add a low jitter clock for quality, and replace the electrolytic capacitors for reliability and quality both.

I'd also look at upgrading the supply to the SAA7220. First off, replace 2362, the capacitor which decouples the SAA7220, with a very low ESR capacitor, like a Sanyo OS-CON or another solid polymer electrolyte type. Secondly, replace the regulator with something better. There are a huge variety of aftermarket regulators available.

If you need the service manual, PM me your email address and I'll send it to you.

[MiL]

amc184,

Thanks and yes it is the same A. alfa as in the picture! Service manual would be greatly appreciated! Any suggestions for a clock?

Cheers/Mikael

[amc184]

I'm actually selling / trading stuff for some leftover clock PCBs of my own design, which aren't anything special but are cheap (and cheap to populate). They're pretty big though, so you'd have to be creative about mounting it.

Other commercial options are the Dexa D-Clock, LC-Audio XO3 and TentLabs XO3.2 (and more). You're best to get something with it's own power supply, or if you going to remove the DAC board you could use the transformer from that along with and AC to DC supply. You can get clock on eBay, but I can't recommend those as I am a bit skeptical about how low jitter those actually are.

About the service manual, I've sent you a PM, reply to that with your email address.

[MiL]

Anton, Thanks, I've sent you an e-mail/Mikael