Recently bought myself a nice second hand CD960 CD player. At first the sound was very impressive. After having listened to it for several weeks I feel there's something wrong with how the CD960 sounds. It can be described as follows: lots and lots of details, deep but no strong bass and a strong emphasis on transients. It sounds a bit loud in the higher mids, not really harsh and a bit untidy every now and then. Now again some brighter recorded discs are hard to listen to. What puzzles me is that when used as a transport and driving my DACMAGIC DA converter, the impression more or less stays the same: different character but a bit of roughness, a bit untidy. Very different from my Philips CD850mk2 when driving the DACMAGIC. Then the sound is very polite and even slow. I didn't expect a transport having that much influence on the sound quality.
Since I feel that both analog and digital output of my CD960 suffer for this bit of roughness I suspect to be something wrong (or wore out) in the disc reading and/or decoding chain.
Any suggestions out there?
btw: the CD960 (CDM1 drive) reads every disc I throw in. My CD850mk2 (CDM4/23) even reads CD-RW's.
Since I feel that both analog and digital output of my CD960 suffer for this bit of roughness I suspect to be something wrong (or wore out) in the disc reading and/or decoding chain.
Any suggestions out there?
btw: the CD960 (CDM1 drive) reads every disc I throw in. My CD850mk2 (CDM4/23) even reads CD-RW's.
IMO SAA7220/TDA1541 does that anyway - on analog out. I have a CD473 and is the same. SAA7220 it's not such a great filter, regardless what fans of it say. And TDA1541 without it (in NOS mode) doesn't sound better either.
Also, the circuit that drives the spindle motor is important, because it can generate lots of low-frequency jitter that is not eliminated by the 16kB buffer memory in the decoder SAA.
The fact that you say that sounds (almost) the same via SPDIF it is probably related to the internal generated jitter of the SAA and beefing/separating power supply might help. I didn't try that - after replacing the opamps and adding capacitors on power lines and output, I got bored of it.
Also, the circuit that drives the spindle motor is important, because it can generate lots of low-frequency jitter that is not eliminated by the 16kB buffer memory in the decoder SAA.
The fact that you say that sounds (almost) the same via SPDIF it is probably related to the internal generated jitter of the SAA and beefing/separating power supply might help. I didn't try that - after replacing the opamps and adding capacitors on power lines and output, I got bored of it.
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Hi, you player history is similar to mine. I ran an 850MKII with a Trichord clock 4 for many years before messing with several CD63's and then landing in the TDA1541 camp.
To that end, I also have a philips CD960 which is virtually identical to the Marantz CD94MKI. What I can tell you is that the std sound is quite very poor like most of the early 1541 players. This player is better than most (as it should be) as it has a substatial PSU and discrete requlation for the output stage.
The CD960 is capable of sounding truely stunning for sure, but it takes some work. The absolute minimum to make this player start to sing, is to use very good regulation on the digital filter chip SAA7220p/A located on the vertically mounted PCB to the right.
Another thing to consider is that every electrolytic cap in the player is over 20years old. There is not a single original cap left in my own player this will be effecting the sound for sure. Replacement with carefully selected caps will result in audio superior to the original sound.
I would start by replacing all PSU smoothing caps and all local decoupling caps. I'd be suprised if this did not result in a significant performance increase. If you want advice on this process, you are in the right place
Edit...
There's a few pics of the various stages of modification here. You can see the replaced caps etc...
HifiSounds CD960
To that end, I also have a philips CD960 which is virtually identical to the Marantz CD94MKI. What I can tell you is that the std sound is quite very poor like most of the early 1541 players. This player is better than most (as it should be) as it has a substatial PSU and discrete requlation for the output stage.
The CD960 is capable of sounding truely stunning for sure, but it takes some work. The absolute minimum to make this player start to sing, is to use very good regulation on the digital filter chip SAA7220p/A located on the vertically mounted PCB to the right.
Another thing to consider is that every electrolytic cap in the player is over 20years old. There is not a single original cap left in my own player this will be effecting the sound for sure. Replacement with carefully selected caps will result in audio superior to the original sound.
I would start by replacing all PSU smoothing caps and all local decoupling caps. I'd be suprised if this did not result in a significant performance increase. If you want advice on this process, you are in the right place
Edit...
There's a few pics of the various stages of modification here. You can see the replaced caps etc...
HifiSounds CD960
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Drop in a separate Salas shunt reg for the filter chip.
I did!!! Then I took it out again and used a decent linear reg!!
Seriously, there were a lot of changes made when I went to the shunt regs and something totally killed the sound. One of the reasons I went back to the linear regs was that I wasnt unhappy with them to start, I just wanted to try something new. The linear regs I use are easy to get inside the player and the shunts were massive. With all the PSU mods, there was no way they'd fit inside the player.
The fact still remains that the filter really needs a decent independant reg.
Another great thing about this set up is that you can directly clock the decoder, filter and DAC if you use a clock that generates /2 & /4 of the master clock. Then you dont have a daisy chained clock with each device in line adding jitter.....works very well.
Thanks a lot for your swift responses.
It seems that for the time being I have to concentrate on 3 issues:
1. poor regulation on the digital filter chip SAA7220p/A
2. worn PSU smoothing caps and local decoupling caps
3. worn caps in motor spindle and laser circuits
And what to expect from a new low jitter clock circuit: great improvement or discussable?
Btw. it seems that working on this CD960 is quite easy since most parts are easely accessible.
It seems that for the time being I have to concentrate on 3 issues:
1. poor regulation on the digital filter chip SAA7220p/A
2. worn PSU smoothing caps and local decoupling caps
3. worn caps in motor spindle and laser circuits
And what to expect from a new low jitter clock circuit: great improvement or discussable?
Btw. it seems that working on this CD960 is quite easy since most parts are easely accessible.
This could work quite well:
1PPM 11.2896 MHz Low Jitter TCXO Crystal Clock for DAC | eBay
It has the divider that UV101 talked about.
You'll need to check if the 11.2896 is correct for your player.
1PPM 11.2896 MHz Low Jitter TCXO Crystal Clock for DAC | eBay
It has the divider that UV101 talked about.
You'll need to check if the 11.2896 is correct for your player.
Its a nice machine to work on for sure!
I'd start with local decoupling and the post reg caps. My preference is for Rubycon ZLG for analogue circuits so the opamps, TDA, servo and post reg. I use 470uF/25v accross the board. In the UK these are about 50p each!!! For digital you want solid polymer electrolytic. Nichicon do some pretty cheap. The ESR is exceptionally low for these. You can use these on the 7220, 7210 and ram area's. Again these are cheap enough at approx 60p for 330uF 6.3v. You can use the excellent OsCon SEPC caps here too as they are the same construction (SEPC).
For pre reg smoother i'd use panasonic FC for the smaller caps but increase the uF as much as possible (space permitting) but for the larger caps I'd use Mudorf SI 22,000uF as a 1st choice or Panasonic TSUP 22,000uF as a 2nd.
The transport will require 33uF low esr replacement - I've got std OsCon's in mine I think there are 5 to do.
You could effectively recap most of the player for sub £30!!
Next would be the seperate reg for the 7220....this quite expensive but I'd recommend the Fidelity Audio SPower. Its the only reg with a small to220 footprint that can handle the current. Expensive but very much worth it!!!
One other thing to consider is to replace the opamps with LM4562. Having replaces the caps all round, it'll make a large difference replacing the cheap std opamps with something nice. These cost approx £8 for 2.
Yep that will do the job and is excellent value for money.....Take a look at my tda clocking doc...its my take on the clocking and a lots of other info I've found along my way
If you want the ultimate in low jitter premium clock, look at the Fidelity Audio C2. Its an incredible bit of kit!http://www.fidelityaudio.co.uk/clocks.html
Advanced 1541 reclocking
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