Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

[Fidelity Audio]

Originally Posted by Glenn2

A minute's silence please for Matthieu's player.

Brent - sorry for OT - as you mod them, do you have the schematic for the output stage of the Dacmagic (or 740C)?

No manual sorry. They do as with all CA equipment have really crappy parts.

Brent

[Fidelity Audio]

Thats bad news Malefoda. Better luck next time

Brent

[studiostevus]

Guys.... I've found it.... and I'm lost.

I've found out this great thread with so much info about my first ever CD-player, which I was about to junk out, but now see enough potential for to be modified and bring me many more happy hours....

But I've lost where to start. Checked out TNT, Ray's page, many more resources online and this thread... but I've completely lost oversight, since you guys are lightyears ahead of me...

Anyway, I would like to tweak my virgin CD63SE, and need some pointers at what brings good improvements for a beginner in DIY audio....

Clock?
Opamps?
Output stage caps?
Dac decoupling caps?
Power supply?

Where to start??

[Malefoda]

My advice: junk it! I'm holding a junkyard, send it to me
Before we can answer you MUST mind how much you wanna spend...
Right now, if your amp is not modded and normal commrecial stuff, remove the 4 DC blocking caps ( jumpers ). While you're at it remove the 4? transistors around.
Order via National Semi a pair of LM4562 and then bypass the HDAM. Let them breath with LM317/337 regs at +/-12V with something like Panasonic FC or Rubycon ZL there, then Black Gates 220µF/16V at op amps. If you buy BG caps then take some other for Decoder and Dac's PS lines ( 6?), but Rubycon ZL/H ZA will do very good there also.
Find a LM340AT 5V for the main regulator, put a Styroflex 2.2nF at the decoder input side, 2x 4 schottky rectifiers for the -/+ 12V and 5Vs.
That's mainly caps wich are expensive and your player will already be a good one for few work.

Then you should go for a clock and it's dedicated PSU and may separate 5Vs even with 7805s, that's extra work and need more than just parts swap.

Virgin sounds like boring now to me, I'm even scared to be sadly disapointed when back to mine rebuild, I just had an ear to a LP right now and I find it's way better in bass and dynamic... waaaaayyy better... maybe it's because I'm playing CD on a "40 sec. memory -means compressed buffered-" portable CD player?...

Do that and tell us.

[RCruz]

Hi Matthieu

I believe you made a perfect sumary of the main mods.

The LM340AT for the main +5v and the styroflex 2.2n at the decoder are really sound openers.
The LM4562 on dedicated regs are very powerfull mods (of course one needs to loose the HDAM and output caps and resistors)

PS: What type of TT are you using ?

Ricardo

[Malefoda]

Hi Ricardo,
long time now I have not listened to my CD-53... so I'm switching from that portable player to the TT, still that simple Toshiba TurnTable Servicing: Toshiba SR-300C and its Shure M91ED with NOS needle.
The record can have its influence, it's Rush "Signals", none of my (yes burnt ones... I know... ) so none of the MFSL or Re-Master does that "real world" thing than my LP, a better mastering?
I wish I have Karen Dalton "It's so hard to tell" LP, her voice is so... different... have to try this guys!
My DOSed CD-53 is only a " as far as I can remember " now, even if I remeber well that reclocking the Servo did bring some serious bass that my DM4 can show ( before not trace of bass at all !).
I'll report ASAP.

Matthieu

[studiostevus]

Malefoda -

Thanks for the tips. Just ordered a sample package of LM4562, and Eddie Wang's LM317/337 kit (recommended by Ray).

Now browsing caps... black gates seem to have disappeared. 220uF/16v are nowhere to be found. Any alternatives recommended for the opamps?

[RCruz]

Talk to Lee... he may be able to help you with the BG.

If not, try getting some Silmic II and please report the results.

My 2C: Do only one mod at the time so you can surely tell where the improvements came from

Ricardo

[RCruz]

As for the opamps some of us had also very good results with the LME49720.

[studiostevus]

Today lost my virginity, but not without pain...

First removed the transistors and resistors of the muting circuit. Listening test everything ok, sound seems to have changed for the better....

Then removed also the 4 caps. Listening test: no sound. Measured some DC voltage of 3.2mV at the analog outputs, but not sure whether that's the cause (amp did not go into protect or anything).

So I must have removed too much... but what? Resistors?