Tolu said:Hi folks
operation has been a success. I did the Mick F. output mod but without the decoupling caps and Rs. Directly from 4309 to cinch.
Sound improved but now AV multi out isn't working anymore. I just removed the first two caps not the other 4.
So what, sound is good but I have to compare the next days again.
I have to repeat: I hate SMD!
Hi Tolu, is it the 4309 chip? sounds like you may have the 4310. AV-out and RCA-out are both via the first caps with the 4310.
If you have the 4309 and you have no AV-out, you might as well remove the second pair of caps, they will be in parallel with your new direct circuit.. this may further improve the sound..
Distorted output
Hi... has anyone experienced a distorted output signal using one of these consoles?
After re-boxing one- I now get a very "choppy" sound at low dynamic levels (quiet passages) which is especially obvious on things like fade-in's, fade outs and quiet instruments with lots of treble, like brushed snare drum... The only electrical modifications I performed were: hotwiring a controller to pushbuttons on the front panel... and piggy backing an LED from the (+5V) terminal on the P.S. board... I am taking my audio signal from the place on the motherboard where the output jack assembly plug is located... any ideas?Is it possible that I damaged the motherboard or DAC?
Hi... has anyone experienced a distorted output signal using one of these consoles?
After re-boxing one- I now get a very "choppy" sound at low dynamic levels (quiet passages) which is especially obvious on things like fade-in's, fade outs and quiet instruments with lots of treble, like brushed snare drum... The only electrical modifications I performed were: hotwiring a controller to pushbuttons on the front panel... and piggy backing an LED from the (+5V) terminal on the P.S. board... I am taking my audio signal from the place on the motherboard where the output jack assembly plug is located... any ideas?Is it possible that I damaged the motherboard or DAC?
Tony:
I haven't yet heard of any case of distorted audio, at least not with the original circuit. Yes, it is possible that you damaged something. But I can't imagine what, in order to get this strange result... so it might be something else.
Check this:
1. take the audio (with test clips or whatever) directly from after the DAC (look up back in this thread for how to do that) and see if it's ok then.
2. If not, try with another preamp/amp, might be the case that the load is wrong, or the wiring or something...
dzkh63:
you migh have a dead laser, or one in need of recalibration. Check out Mick's site http://dogbreath.de/PS1/index.html
Don't think anyone ever discovered the schematic of it...
Any Sony-employee out there who we can offer a couple of beers in exchange for the schematics? ehehehe
I haven't yet heard of any case of distorted audio, at least not with the original circuit. Yes, it is possible that you damaged something. But I can't imagine what, in order to get this strange result... so it might be something else.
Check this:
1. take the audio (with test clips or whatever) directly from after the DAC (look up back in this thread for how to do that) and see if it's ok then.
2. If not, try with another preamp/amp, might be the case that the load is wrong, or the wiring or something...
dzkh63:
you migh have a dead laser, or one in need of recalibration. Check out Mick's site http://dogbreath.de/PS1/index.html
Don't think anyone ever discovered the schematic of it...
Any Sony-employee out there who we can offer a couple of beers in exchange for the schematics? ehehehe
Re: Distorted output
GratefulTony,
Do you have any runs of wire within your case that could be picking up RFI? With some unshielded cables used with other equipment, I have heard similar distortion at the high frequencies (something like sibilance). Anyway, you may want to check your wiring. Perhaps, you might have to add shielding braid to any troublesome spots.
If you are still using the stock motherboard without any mods (i.e., still using the SMD caps, resistors, op amps, etc.), the small electrolytics might be showing their age. I have heard similar symptons when electrolytic caps are ready to go as well.
GratefulTony said:
GratefulTony,
Do you have any runs of wire within your case that could be picking up RFI? With some unshielded cables used with other equipment, I have heard similar distortion at the high frequencies (something like sibilance). Anyway, you may want to check your wiring. Perhaps, you might have to add shielding braid to any troublesome spots.
If you are still using the stock motherboard without any mods (i.e., still using the SMD caps, resistors, op amps, etc.), the small electrolytics might be showing their age. I have heard similar symptons when electrolytic caps are ready to go as well.
joydivision said:chofaichan:
what post is that what you just cited?
As for being cheated, I don't think so... but then, I have yet to listen to one of those multiple thousand dollar CDPs... but I would say, they should sound at least as good, if not most probably better, than the playstation (even modded). If not, then it's not being cheated, it's more like being robbed
The only thing I know for sure - because I did my comparisons - is that the playstation (even un-modded) sounds better than every lower-segment cdp I've heard, and even better than some mid-segment players. Just to give an idea, my modded PS1 sounds as good as a modded Marantz CD40 (new clock and all). But in this post you cited, there's a big mistake: the playstation ONE doesn't sound good at all. It sounds like a real plastic console is supposed to sound...
hahahahaa, icic.
yea, we get robbed wHi-Fi is such a black hole
I am new here, though I have been planning to work on a 1002 purchased specifically for upgrading for six months now.
I am actually curious to see how close to a Shanling CD T100 I can get the playstation. I do want to add a valve output as a the Shanling has one.
My problem with starting, is that I want to plan this as a full project. I want to have a real audiophile player, including a few of the frills one would expect from a $20 cd player. I am planning a large rosewood box, with front panel buttons and a remote with metal housing and metal buttons. From what I have read here, I am confident that a new PSU, valve output, BAM transport, and remote will be possible, but I have a few more problems.
Ideally I would like to add a nixie numerical display. Nixies would suit a valve/rosewood player. I would like to know the track number, and the elapsed time of the track. A monitor is NOT an option. If nixies are too difficult, I would like to add two lines of six LEDs (twelve total) that light up as the track number increases. I do not know if the nixies will add interference into the signal, and I would not hesitate to ignore nixies if they added noise the sound.
The other part that worries me is the startup sound. It is a small annoyance, but it should be possible to copy the ROM onto SRAM or EPROM. Once you have the ROM, this startup sound can be removed completely, OR if that is too difficult, the sound could be replaced with any sound or silence of the same length. Birdsong at startup would be a nice touch.
I used to have friends who could have reversed engineered the chip operation, and there is a small chance that I can find some contact details. There should be others who could find the track second counter, and the track number. It should not be too hard to jimmy together something that will work with nixies. The ROM fix should be just as easy for the right person. The ROM should already be off the machine. I believe there are playstation emulators floating around, and these should already have a ROM (or at least come with instructions on how to extract the ROM image)... Replacing a number of bits in a ROM image is really easy with a Hex Editor, and that is all we need to do to replace the raw sound data. Writing an EPROM is pretty easy if you have $20 worth of equipment and can use DOS.
Has anyone considered removing unnecessary parts of the system to see if they add noise to the signal path? I know this would be drastic, and would only have a small chance of paying dividends, but there does seem to be an excess of hardware to experiment with.
I am actually curious to see how close to a Shanling CD T100 I can get the playstation. I do want to add a valve output as a the Shanling has one.
My problem with starting, is that I want to plan this as a full project. I want to have a real audiophile player, including a few of the frills one would expect from a $20 cd player. I am planning a large rosewood box, with front panel buttons and a remote with metal housing and metal buttons. From what I have read here, I am confident that a new PSU, valve output, BAM transport, and remote will be possible, but I have a few more problems.
Ideally I would like to add a nixie numerical display. Nixies would suit a valve/rosewood player. I would like to know the track number, and the elapsed time of the track. A monitor is NOT an option. If nixies are too difficult, I would like to add two lines of six LEDs (twelve total) that light up as the track number increases. I do not know if the nixies will add interference into the signal, and I would not hesitate to ignore nixies if they added noise the sound.
The other part that worries me is the startup sound. It is a small annoyance, but it should be possible to copy the ROM onto SRAM or EPROM. Once you have the ROM, this startup sound can be removed completely, OR if that is too difficult, the sound could be replaced with any sound or silence of the same length. Birdsong at startup would be a nice touch.
I used to have friends who could have reversed engineered the chip operation, and there is a small chance that I can find some contact details. There should be others who could find the track second counter, and the track number. It should not be too hard to jimmy together something that will work with nixies. The ROM fix should be just as easy for the right person. The ROM should already be off the machine. I believe there are playstation emulators floating around, and these should already have a ROM (or at least come with instructions on how to extract the ROM image)... Replacing a number of bits in a ROM image is really easy with a Hex Editor, and that is all we need to do to replace the raw sound data. Writing an EPROM is pretty easy if you have $20 worth of equipment and can use DOS.
Has anyone considered removing unnecessary parts of the system to see if they add noise to the signal path? I know this would be drastic, and would only have a small chance of paying dividends, but there does seem to be an excess of hardware to experiment with.
joydivision said:Phileas,
Any voltage rating above 6V should be ok.
100uF seems a tad high though... I'd say, try a few caps you have in good consideration and decide what you like most...
Thank you.
I was going off Mike's web link for the ones used. Capacitors are pretty cheap so I may try a few others.
John, it is a solution, but leaving it on is not for everybody. I plan to be getting off the grid within two years with a solar/wind system, That means enough power for the family, but only if managed carefully. I do not even leave my valve equipment on. They only take 10-15 minutes to warm up.
I enjoy tinkering now and then, but this is a project I fully intend to use if I start it, so it needs to be usable as well as great sounding with a beautiful finish (not one part of that horrible plastic case will remain.
General question for everyone... Here is one question that has been bugging me a lot. Why are you all plugging the eraser end of a pencil into the switch? If the switch is such a problem, then why not just remove the switch? I have been planning to do this first on my unit.
I enjoy tinkering now and then, but this is a project I fully intend to use if I start it, so it needs to be usable as well as great sounding with a beautiful finish (not one part of that horrible plastic case will remain.
General question for everyone... Here is one question that has been bugging me a lot. Why are you all plugging the eraser end of a pencil into the switch? If the switch is such a problem, then why not just remove the switch? I have been planning to do this first on my unit.
I have had another thought. Two in one day... a record!
I will see if I can find any contact info on the programmer who created the PS1 emulator... he has to have reversed engineered enough of it to know what pins from what chip will handle the track time and track number info.
I hope I get lucky and find his info.
I will see if I can find any contact info on the programmer who created the PS1 emulator... he has to have reversed engineered enough of it to know what pins from what chip will handle the track time and track number info.
I hope I get lucky and find his info.
NotSure, that would solve the last remaining irritant with the PS1, sometimes I want to skip to a track and have to count the number of presses .... Good luck.
On the start up tune....
I use a soft start relay for my amp/PS1 combo so this solves two issues with one application.... soft starts the amps power-up to protect it and the speakers from turn-on thump .....and the delay is just enough so it switches to full current after the tone... about 5 seconds I think. This could easily be placed on the PS1 output if you dont want the integrated solution, although, thinking about it, you may not like the audio signal going through a relay.
Anyway, I look forward to your findings on 'hot-wiring' the motherboard!
.... Good luck.On the start up tune....
I use a soft start relay for my amp/PS1 combo so this solves two issues with one application.... soft starts the amps power-up to protect it and the speakers from turn-on thump
.....and the delay is just enough so it switches to full current after the tone... about 5 seconds I think. This could easily be placed on the PS1 output if you dont want the integrated solution, although, thinking about it, you may not like the audio signal going through a relay.Anyway, I look forward to your findings on 'hot-wiring' the motherboard!