Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

jimh0612 said:
PS - Simon

Did you use the discrete layout as per Ray's current site?

It sounded like you had the pcb's made for you by Jaap.

Jim

Sure did, again: many thanks to that awesome bloke! Brent drilled the holes on his pillar drill. I bought the parts and stuffed it. A lot of work in all from drawing board to listening session! No wonder Audiocom aren't doing this in their mods.
 
Just bought some plain copper board and a small Dremel. Printed the Kwak clock pcb on the pc and after sticking it to the board with PVA going to engrave the traces, soak off the paper and clean it up.

No idea how its going to work out but I bet I'll be cross-eyed!!!

Tried the clock pcb on tripad board but getting loads of solder all over the place trying to cut some tripads and linking others for a groundplane.

May try to compare the two if I get a chance.

Alternatively, may I ask how much Jaap charged you?

(I'll understand if you can't/won't answer)!

So far £20 for the Dremel plus about £1.50 for the board from Mappos.

Brent's pcb's look nice but expensive for me. Good value for most people I guess but I'm not that flush, unfortunately!!

Jim
 
I didn't want to shout about getting the board from Jaap as he won't want to be bombarded with requests. I recall he said he didn't want to sell any really as he didn't have the time or very good facilities, sadly. I was just lucky to get it at the same time he did his own and Brent's.

I think Brent is looking into how much it would cost to sell his new PCB unstuffed. It would mean working with SMD parts though.

Simon

ps - that Dremel will really come in handy all over the place I reckon!
 
jimh0612 said:
Just been browsing around the web and looked at Hi Fi Collective.

They say Holco gives a crisp, full sound (I think they are the ones Ray chose) and the Kiwame as you say, " tubey".

Jim

Hi Jim,

The main reason for that is the Holcos are metal film and the Kiwames carbon film; doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the brand.

Ray
 
Yeh I thought so too!!

Figured that about the pcb also and our friend. Hope I haven't said too much already.

Asked Brent a bit back about the unstuffed version, but SMD gives me the willies.

I bu****ed the smd resistors in Ray's filter mods I think cos some of the values were way different once I'd soldered them in place. Something to do with too much heat changing the values.

BTW I agree with your comments on the MP3 thread about the difference in recording quality after modding your CDP.

I can already tell the difference in quality between tracks on Sade's greatest hits, and in a way it's a shame to mod the player because now I don't like to listen to some tracks in my music collection because now I can hear how s**t the recording is!!

Jim
 
Hi Ray

your reply came up while I was replying to Simon's post.

Didn't realise the difference in construction.

Did you choose the Holco's on availability or sound quality?

Also am I right about the differences in values on the filter mods - I measured before and after soldering in place.

I kept the heat to a minimum where I could but probably ham-fisted compared to you - I've seen your work and wish I could solder like that!!
Jim
 
Hi guys,

I try to mix the different types of components, to avoid ending up with a too smooth or too bright sound. I used Holcos in the CD outputstage, Holcos in the ladder-switch and 5W Kiwames as anode resistors in my tubeamp, and 5W Kiwames in the tweeter section of my LS filters.
The 5W Kiwames are great for tubegear and LS filters, you can finally get rid of those cheap ceramic wirewound ones, or the metal oxide ones.

Ray
 
jimh0612 said:
I feel at the mo I still have a lot of work to do on the CD63 so would you think the stepped attenuator is a way forward?

If you're after a more "musical" sound then you're probably looking in the wrong place with a stepped attenuator. It's an expensive fiddly thing that won't help it sound more engaging (I'd bet money on that). I presume you're talking about just using this in place of the pot.

IMHO.

Simon

ps - nice Yorkshire proverb lol
 
SimontY said:
If you're after a more "musical" sound then you're probably looking in the wrong place with a stepped attenuator. It's an expensive fiddly thing that won't help it sound more engaging (I'd bet money on that). I presume you're talking about just using this in place of the pot.

IMHO.

Simon

ps - nice Yorkshire proverb lol

[sarcastic]
That's not entirely accurate...
[/sarcastic]

I'm willing to take you on for that bet Simon :D.
When I changed the blue Alps in my tubeamp the difference was BIG.

Ray
 
I could be flamed for saying any amp will do but recently hearing 3 very different power amps in my system made me realise that the musicality can be intact even when the flavour changes. (although I was very impressed by Hugo/Netlist's massive class A jobs at the UK meet.)

Conversely, NOT just any old source will do, it MUST be excellent or it will never tingle the spine.

Ray,

Shoot me! I made an educated guess with the attenuater. I've tried a few pots and found so little difference I assume they can't sound all that different to a couple of resistors. Maybe I was being too simplistic.