SimontY said:
Excellent mate! I knew you'd like those caps. But be patient, when I switched to those same caps in series with my tweeter it took a while for them to sound musically correct. They were impressive but overbright at first. Give them a couple of weeks and if there's still a problem then consider swapping them out again.
You will be impressed by the clock
Simon
Ahhh coolio, il give them a chance to show their worth.
Putting the clock in now. It made such a difference in my first player and i havnt had it in a player for months now. Will also put the 12V audiocom regs back in tonight just by the op-amps.
Hi, I've put some records on 2nite.
After all I find the sound very clear but:
bass lack of punch, can't follow the rest. Maybe this is ARCam's fault (check the review under).
This is very clear on Suicidal Tendencies "Still Cyco After All These Years", with their famous bass hero.
I've found some records harsh, as Emiliana Torrini "Love in the Time of Science", track 8. I've opened the file to have a look, as the recorded volume is very high... of course they pushed it too much, maybe that's why it sounds harsh on her voice sometimes.
(stupid Amazon's guys, the CD cover is upside down...)
I've enjoyed as never some other records, such as the famous Louise Attaque's first LP (a must have among the must have). Violin and bass sounds just nice!
About my speakers...
I love my CD53 =)
(It's only have an upgraded PCB, no clock, no super regs, no coax...)
After all I find the sound very clear but:
bass lack of punch, can't follow the rest. Maybe this is ARCam's fault (check the review under).
This is very clear on Suicidal Tendencies "Still Cyco After All These Years", with their famous bass hero.
I've found some records harsh, as Emiliana Torrini "Love in the Time of Science", track 8. I've opened the file to have a look, as the recorded volume is very high... of course they pushed it too much, maybe that's why it sounds harsh on her voice sometimes.
I've enjoyed as never some other records, such as the famous Louise Attaque's first LP (a must have among the must have). Violin and bass sounds just nice!
About my speakers...
About my integrated amp:
I love my CD53 =)
(It's only have an upgraded PCB, no clock, no super regs, no coax...)
Malefoda said:
Stupid reviewers. My chip amp only pushes about 25wpc but I can hear stonking bass.
Take a look at the main reservoir caps in there. Let us know what brand and model, how big in uF they are, and how big physically they are. They could be a candidate for upgrading. Large, cheap caps will suck the life out, but bypassing with large film caps and/or a "snubber" made from 1R and 100nF may help.
The pre-amp section may have very upgradeable op-amps if you're lucky. Get yourself a proper spiked rack and hard cone feet on the amp and cdp to hear defined bass.
Clean all your mains plug pins with brasso or equivalent. Make sure your wall socket is clean and/or new.
You could also try a solid core interconnect. These tend to sound more "solid"!!!
It seems very probable that your bass has been "cleaned up" by mods and your system overall isn't providing the oomph.
One more suggestion: reconnect the HDAM. The extra resolution and detail gained by its removal may not be very apparent in your setup, but the reduced bass heft may be.
Also, I think you overdamped your chassis a bit. I found with too much bitumen it sounded a bit lacking in grunt. Perpaps a little resonance is good?
Simon
While I had the camera and strobe out to take naked pictures of my GFP-750 preamp mod, I snapped a couple of my CD63! Its a shot from the rear.
I used large value Panasonic FA electrolytics, and replaced just about every part from the dac to outputs and the HDAM is jumpered around. The decoder to dac resistors are Caddock mk132 in those boxes. The other boxes around the opamps are Vishay S102 resistors, also a bulk foil. The other resistors are Holco H4, and the capacitors are polystyrene. In the lower right, you can see Harris Hyperfast rectifiers and stock regulators. The clock is stock with a healthy power supply bypass. There are some ferrite beads on jumpers to decouple power and some ground
A front view would show a lovely pair ... of MKP capacitors standing up. They are hidden in the "V" of electrolytics. They are my DAC analog supply bypasses and at .47uf, were a huge improvement over .1uf caps I had tried before.
I'm open to suggestions on new exploits. Perhaps around the servo and RF amp sections? I'd like to keep the complications down and not add extra circuits. Mostly I want to keep it working!
I used large value Panasonic FA electrolytics, and replaced just about every part from the dac to outputs and the HDAM is jumpered around. The decoder to dac resistors are Caddock mk132 in those boxes. The other boxes around the opamps are Vishay S102 resistors, also a bulk foil. The other resistors are Holco H4, and the capacitors are polystyrene. In the lower right, you can see Harris Hyperfast rectifiers and stock regulators. The clock is stock with a healthy power supply bypass. There are some ferrite beads on jumpers to decouple power and some ground
A front view would show a lovely pair ... of MKP capacitors standing up. They are hidden in the "V" of electrolytics. They are my DAC analog supply bypasses and at .47uf, were a huge improvement over .1uf caps I had tried before.
I'm open to suggestions on new exploits. Perhaps around the servo and RF amp sections? I'd like to keep the complications down and not add extra circuits. Mostly I want to keep it working!
Attachments
markk02474 said:
Good work there! How about some Black Gate caps, even just one for the DAC analogue?
How about silver mica or polystyrene caps and precision resistors around the servo and RF and HF amps? This is lined up as one of my next mods for sure.
You could shield the logic and driver chips, and perhaps do some coax runs.
Beyond that you really need to add some separate regs to make it super-duper, and reclock it.
Simon
Mornin,
you're all feelin' I've dampen too much the CDP? Maybe I'll remove the side top plate bitumen (may help take some heat out).
I think if main is a point to master that this should be one problem. At my previous flat in a big town it show 238 V all the time, and maybe once a day it show 237.8.
Right now within one minute it changes from 220 to 225, and if the meter is looked for several minutes it can show from 217 (never seen less) to 232. And the winter days, time (change of one hour to change the load on powerplant) seems to be the strating point of my "downgrade" feeling...
I'll have a look in the Arcam.
Does my all CDP lines caps upgrade may have done harm to sound? I've put my left Elna RJH 120/16 beside the OPAmp (feeding lines) and at the HPhone socket. All are 100n PPS bypassed...
Thanks Simon and Brent, and all others!
you're all feelin' I've dampen too much the CDP? Maybe I'll remove the side top plate bitumen (may help take some heat out).
I think if main is a point to master that this should be one problem. At my previous flat in a big town it show 238 V all the time, and maybe once a day it show 237.8.
Right now within one minute it changes from 220 to 225, and if the meter is looked for several minutes it can show from 217 (never seen less) to 232. And the winter days, time (change of one hour to change the load on powerplant) seems to be the strating point of my "downgrade" feeling...
I'll have a look in the Arcam.
Does my all CDP lines caps upgrade may have done harm to sound? I've put my left Elna RJH 120/16 beside the OPAmp (feeding lines) and at the HPhone socket. All are 100n PPS bypassed...
Thanks Simon and Brent, and all others!
Malefoda said:
Maybe look at that after everything else as it's messy. Bitumen is a pain to remove. Your mains would appear to have taken a downgrade if it's fluctuating that much. Low mains voltage could make the sound more relaxed and lacking in punch and life and high mains might make it sound fast and exciting.
Do keep in mind that your new house will have different mains and different earthing and a different structure. Unfortunately, these factors are more important than your actual system but they can be hard to fix. I took a downgrade the last time I moved house and even with extensive work on the room it never got quite as good. I've compensated by upgrading the system itself but the problems remain to some extent.
One thing to try re. mechanical resonance: if you want a thuddier bass sound try adding something heavy to your rack and/or cd player lid. I'd normally advise against this sort of thing but it could be worth a try.
Simon
Brent, I've just closed it, the lid has no effect, maybe better with. So no problem here.
Simon... no earth on the wall plugs here! That's why right now my socket does not link to star earth RCA point. But the amp is also not earthed... my furniture is a very heavy one with steel frame. A pain to move!
For the amp:
Simon... no earth on the wall plugs here! That's why right now my socket does not link to star earth RCA point. But the amp is also not earthed... my furniture is a very heavy one with steel frame. A pain to move!
For the amp:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Malefoda said:
This sort of minor change won't be obvious on a quick swap (quick tests only show huge changes). You need to assess this sort of thing over a day or three. This is my experience at least. If anything, I'd expect the sound to have less overhang without the lid and to sound a bit more ballsy and bassy with the lid. There may be some effect on shielding to factor in too.
Hi Simon,
post3997 shows the star grounds connected back to safety earth via the wire from "psu star" to "E".
I think it would be better to adopt power amplifier topology and use a disconnecting network in lieu of the wire connection.
It also appears that you have both zero volt rails connected 4times to the stars (have I read that right?). There is duplication here that creates a loop that could/will pick up inductively coupled interference.
After you have removed the direct connection to safety earth you can try using the "cdp star" only and removing the "psu star" and it's two connections to zero volt rails. Then connect "cdp star" to the disconnecting network then to the safety earth. The extra cost is tiny in comparison to your super-regs.
post3997 shows the star grounds connected back to safety earth via the wire from "psu star" to "E".
I think it would be better to adopt power amplifier topology and use a disconnecting network in lieu of the wire connection.
It also appears that you have both zero volt rails connected 4times to the stars (have I read that right?). There is duplication here that creates a loop that could/will pick up inductively coupled interference.
After you have removed the direct connection to safety earth you can try using the "cdp star" only and removing the "psu star" and it's two connections to zero volt rails. Then connect "cdp star" to the disconnecting network then to the safety earth. The extra cost is tiny in comparison to your super-regs.
Malefoda said:Hi Greg3333,
first I have 5 of these left right now (I used my international company e-mail to order them free, it seems the are confident on me). They are yours for free (I mean 2 of the 5), just hope post won't charge me too much! Tell me how to send it to you.
That would be very much appreciated!
I'll email you...
Greg