Philips CD931: good or not?

[Bricolo]

Originally posted by Elso Kwak
Hi Andypairo,
First congratulations with your engagement to be married!.
I own a Philips CD931 that is very similar to the CD930.
I find the sound better then the Philips CD650.(same clock). And muchos better than a Sony CDPX33ES.
For topnotch performance take out the three I2S signals and feed them directly to the TDA1543. Stunning performance,. I never heard the sweet shimmering overtones of a clavicord better!
The digital output is bulls***. Distorted waveform and cinch (not 75 Ohm).

Bricolo, you can take out the main PCB TOGETHER with the transport!. Just remove all screws holding the the main PCB and to screws behind the tray at the front. The front of the tray can be easily removed by lifting. Also remove the screw at the center of the transport at the rear. For this one you need a long torxbit.

A groundloop seems to be built in as the main PCB is connected at two or more places to the chassis

Yes, but if you want to remove the transport, you have to put everything out before
But I didn't know the tip for the front of the tray. I removed the tray completely, it was a delacate operation to dismount it from the mechanism. Thanks for the hint

[zygibajt]

Elso and others!
I'm reading current and finding past threads about old Marantz and Phillips players.The thing is I want to modify one of them.And I would like to get extremely good performance out of it (a lot of modifications).But I have a problem:Which of them to look for.I happen to be on local flea market every week and there are a lot old players there quite cheap (they are brought from germany,people throw them out).I already know that TDA 1541A (or S1) and SAA7220 are the chips to look inside.I already know that Phillips LHH-1000 is great,also 950 DAC (haven't seen them yet).Know about Marantz CD72MK2 and CD 80 (I must have seen them 'couse I know that look but they are quite seldom).But I see Phillips 930/931 and 950/951 almost every week.Is is any good for mods (I mean really ,extremely good).
Maybe some others:Revox B226 , Bang & Olufsen?
Please tell me what to look for? Which of older players after some modification can offer extreme performance?
The thing is I don't want to modify CD I happen to have,but I want to modify old CD which offers top performance.
I would be greatful for some hints.Which models are top of the line?
Bartek

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by zygibajt
Elso and others!
I'm reading current and finding past threads about old Marantz and Phillips players.The thing is I want to modify one of them.And I would like to get extremely good performance out of it (a lot of modifications).But I have a problem:Which of them to look for.I happen to be on local flea market every week and there are a lot old players there quite cheap (they are brought from germany,people throw them out).I already know that TDA 1541A (or S1) and SAA7220 are the chips to look inside.I already know that Phillips LHH-1000 is great,also 950 DAC (haven't seen them yet).Know about Marantz CD72MK2 and CD 80 (I must have seen them 'couse I know that look but they are quite seldom).But I see Phillips 930/931 and 950/951 almost every week.Is is any good for mods (I mean really ,extremely good).
Maybe some others:Revox B226 , Bang & Olufsen?
Please tell me what to look for? Which of older players after some modification can offer extreme performance?
The thing is I don't want to modify CD I happen to have,but I want to modify old CD which offers top performance.
I would be greatful for some hints.Which models are top of the line?
Bartek

Hi Bartek,
Forget about the CD80, CD960, CD380, CD650! Too old and you can't get a new laser.
Philips CD930/931/940 are almost identical, except programming.
I don't know exactly what makes them good. If my CD650 had not failed I would never have tried a CD931! And if my Sony CDPX33ES had not failed I never did try a CD650.
Please note I use the player only as a transport or source of I2S signals.

[Andypairo]

Hi Andypairo,
First congratulations with your engagement to be married!.
I own a Philips CD931 that is very similar to the CD930.
I find the sound better then the Philips CD650.(same clock). And muchos better than a Sony CDPX33ES. (And also much better than the Philips CD380. Do you read this Rudolf?)
For topnotch performance take out the three I2S signals and feed them directly to the TDA1543. Stunning performance,. I never heard the sweet shimmering overtones of a clavicord better!
The digital output is bulls***. Distorted waveform and cinch (not 75 Ohm).

Thank you for your congratulations, I hope that the WAF won't affect this hobby that much (to be true I'm already making up her mind about our future set-up: big speakers, big amplifiers... )

So, if in good condition and a little "tweaked" this player can be a good choice (particularly if it is obtained cheaply..), isn't it?

Cheers

Andrea

PS Hey guys, fairplay on Ebay auctions!

[jean-paul]

Forget about the CD80, CD960, CD380, CD650! Too old and you can't get a new laser.

Just received my CDM4/19 from Till ! You're right about the CDM1 ( as used in CD80/960 ), it is obsolete for quite some time now. But...there are CD80's out there with good lasers.

CD931 has a fine CDM 9 mechanics but the mainboard is really badly designed. Please have a look at the TDA8808/8809. One of of them isn't decoupled at all while it has very long tracks. One of them shares ground with the servo amp. One of the opamps isn't decoupled as well. The SPDIF transformer doesn't deserve the name like 99 % of Philips cdplayers ( if they have one that is ).
All this made me decide to sell it.

This machine needs time and a steady hand. The PCB material is not too good either so one has to be careful while modding and too much tweaking might be the end of CD931. And worse of all, it is 1 bit .

I currently own a Arcam Alpha One CD that I like, but next year I'm getting married and I'll have to get something else.

Congratulations on that but why on earth would you buy a crappy CD931 when you have a very tweakable Arcam Alpha One ( which has CDM 9 too IIRC just as my Alpha 5 ) ?

Why buy something less good than you have ????? When you sell the Arcam it will be around 100 Euro worth. Less than you'll spend on the "new" cdplayer that's worse than the old....

[Bricolo]

Originally posted by jean-paul



Why buy something less good than you have ????? When you sell the Arcam it will be around 100 Euro worth. Less than you'll spend on the "new" cdplayer that's worse than the old....

Maybe he prefers tweaking a cheap player bought on a flea market.

[jean-paul]

With the mods it 'll be more expensive alltogether.

[Andypairo]

To be true I'm not willing to sell the Arcam at all but I can't take it to my new home - my brothers wouldn't appreciate

I just wanted to know if I could obtain good results for cheap.. It is going to be a sort of experiment.

Cheers

Andrea

[jean-paul]

Originally posted by Andypairo
To be true I'm not willing to sell the Arcam at all but I can't take it to my new home - my brothers wouldn't appreciate

I just wanted to know if I could obtain good results for cheap.. It is going to be a sort of experiment.

Cheers

Andrea

Ah, now it makes sense to me. You can obtain very good results with the older Philips/Marantz cdplayers. First buy a spare CDM4/19 from Till then ( if he still has any )

[Andypairo]

What do you say Till?

Cheers

Andrea