philips cd850 MKII

[Peng]

As his place will probably be filled by a dvd/sacd player in the very near future, i am thinking about modding my cd-850mkII - it would be a shame to do nothing with this player.
(I will certainly try the dddac1543 - waiting for the parts to arrive...).

This is supposed to be a rather good player from Philips (it is pretty old now, but still works just fine - also the sound is not bad at all), yet there is very little to be found about this player on the internet(?).
Anybody out there who can give me directions to schematics improvements/ modifications?

[RR]

Hello,

Just email me if you want schematics of this player. It has a separate dac board, I2S connected to the decoder PCB, so it should be easy to put a new DIY board with the dac chip of your choice.

Succes,

Roberto

[Peng]

Roberto,

Thanks for the offer - would be a great help!
However do not see your e-mail address. Can you mail me ? (link on bottom of this message)

Just opened the player and indeed there are separated boards. I guess I can take I2s from saa7210.
Btw do you know if marantz cd62= philips 850mkII ? I saw a picture of the marantz on this forum and the inside looks identical.

I would really appreciate the schematics,
thanks!

[RR]

Peng,

I can't tell on CD62. I have seen some Philips-Marantz players that have a similar decoder board with different DAC and other complementary boards (FTS, headphones, etc).

When you see the schematics of CD-850 it will become clear the connection of the boards (the biggest connector carries the I2S data).

Sorry for the missing email link, I think I have corrected that.

Roberto

[Peng]

Roberto,

many thanks for the schematics.
This will really get me going


Greetz and
Happy newyear !!

[ashok]

Hi Roberto,
I tried to email you privately but I am not sure if it will get to you.
I would also like to have the circuit diagram of the CD850 MkII. I also have a machine which I want to modify.
You can email me at amadhavan(at)eth.net
Please change the (at) for @.
Thanks in advance.
Wish you all a Very Happy New Year .
Ashok.

[RR]

Ashok,

I received your mail and sent you the schematics yesterday. I'll try again, though.

Please email me again if my mail doesnt reach you for whatever reason.

Roberto

[ashok]

Hi Roberto,
Thanks for all your effort. I did not get your mail but I also found out that my "eth.net" mailbox accepts only some types of files ( no pdf !).
Better you send it to
ashokm@sathyam.net.in and you could copy it to ashokm@sify.com .
One of these should accept the file.
Thanks again,
Ashok.

[RR]

Ashok,

Done!

Let's see if we have luck this time.

Happy mods,

Roberto

[Fin]

Hi Peng

I have a Philips CD624 which is of similar age to your 850Mk11 and uses similar technology to the 850Mk1. Unfortunately, it is not built quite as well as your machine. I was planning on doing something like you are doing, ie replace the DAC with something a bit more interesting. However, I am now having second thoughts as reliable sources have informed me that these earlier Bitstream DAC's can be surprisingly good if some carefull mods are done to the player.

I know of one serious DIYer who has modded a CD634 by replacing the clock with a TENT clock and improved the output opamps. The sound of this machine compares favourably with his TDA1541A equipped machine. He has described the SAA7321 DAC (which should be similar to yours), as the best sounding 1 Bit DAC ever.

I hope I don't start a Multibit/nos vs Single bit war here, but maybe you should consider some other mods first before leaping in to change what could be a very good version of one technology, for an economy version of another technology.

Unfortunately, I can't give you a first hand opinion of which approach I would prefer as I have not made a direct comparison. I am just giving you my thoughts on how I will approach my project.

Good luck

Fin