Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

[alcoholic]

Thanks Simon.

I'm already very pleased with the level of detail. But my scirocco speakers are verry detailed and the blackgate's in my DIY gainclone gave some extra detail too. I hear new things on my CD collection every day. Can't wait to get that an even better sound.

But I have to admit I think the standard 63MKII KI and my previous CD57 MKII sound really awfull. I couldn't imagine some modding could bring the quality up to what I have now. I'll have to admit my statement about CD's sounding bad was wrong, it's most of the players that sound wrong

BTW, I think Blackgates are awesome for OPAMP power supply. I've got +/- 15V with 78CT15 and 79CT15, 4x 1000uF 25V non polars and 4x 330uF 16V and I've only measured about 80-90nV AC on the power lines with an open case. I previously measured more than 100mV. Yeah I know, Keithley 2000's are great too

[SimontY]

Black Gates are lovely, and I agree, the stock CD63ki is dreadful. Such a messy uncontrolled and harsh sound! You're definately on the right track with those oversized transformers (if you can fit them in!). They will give you great bass weight and dynamics.

Simon

[Joe-HT]

Next time I'll have the drink before tweaking! I guess I was using the wrong 12 volt tap. I now have sound again using u161 jumper in front of the 7805.

Clarity! This may take some getting used to! It's bordering on overly bright. (with hdams)

The x02 has three clock outs. Can I make use of them on the cd63?

I guess I'm back to more tweaking, any suggestions for fuller richer mids?

[Thomo]

Separate low noise 5v Regs for dac & decoder analogue and digital, improves the sound in all areas.

Slightly off-topic but I recently emailed PartsConnexion in Canada about contacting the Black Gate manufacturer so I could buy-in bulk supplies, and they told me they are no longer manufactured! This may be old news, I don't know, but I thinks it's defo a big blow for us DIY'ers.

Regards, Lee.

p.s. I sincerely hope you missed the worst of that water Simon. Most of Sheffield looks a very nice place to be right now, if you're a duck!

[SimontY]

Hi Lee,

Yes, I've missed most of the water. Thanks for your concern though. Picture of Endcliffe Park attached. It's just down at the bottom of my road. And my office is right by Millhouses park, where a boy was washed away to his death yesterday. Actually I was there right after it happened, just by chance. Not nice.

Simon

[SimontY]

I've heard about BG not being made anymore years ago. A load of rubbish I reckon. Also Endcliffe park attached:

[Fidelity Audio]

The river don is on the brink here in donny too with lots of flooding as smaller brooks etc backup.

Anyway onto even grimmer things, BG are defo no longer made but they do have a large stock pile according to Nick at HiFi Collective. He told me he had to order in batches of £10Kfrom them.lol

Brent

[alcoholic]

Originally posted by Joe-HT
Clarity! This may take some getting used to! It's bordering on overly bright. (with hdams)

I guess I'm back to more tweaking, any suggestions for fuller richer mids?

Good news as I am about to order a better clock too.

The best ways for a better mid definitly was removing the HDAM circuit and replace the opamps. The HDAM made the sound "slow". Even with the standard opamps it made a big difference. It sounds brighter.

Of course the removal of the output caps will do. But this mainly improved lower frequencies. But higher frequencies benefit from this too.

Last but not least a clean power supply for the opamps & DAC. The dac will improve from a seperate supply, or even better capacitors. My opamp supply is switched to +/- 15V with better regulators, better caps (BG) and removal of the headphone/mute circuit. This had a benefit on all frequencies. This is verry dependant of the opamp type. For example the popular LM4562 has a much higher PSRR so the difference will probably be smaller compared to others.

[Glenn2]

Originally posted by philpoole
Digital telly transport stream demux, all in assembly with only 15 mnemonics. Five years. You'd get less for murder I'm sure.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for more than 4 hours, once the novelty's worn off. Get a compiler's my best advice.
Anyway, I survived, that's the main thing.

I've been writing IBM mainframe assembly code for a living for the last 12 years (ok - three years off backpacking for good behaviour) - most people can't believe this sort of thing is still being done.... sometimes I can't...

[Glenn2]

Originally posted by Joe-HT
Next time I'll have the drink before tweaking! I guess I was using the wrong 12 volt tap. I now have sound again using u161 jumper in front of the 7805.

Clarity! This may take some getting used to! It's bordering on overly bright. (with hdams)

The x02 has three clock outs. Can I make use of them on the cd63?

I guess I'm back to more tweaking, any suggestions for fuller richer mids?

Yes you must always use the digital supplies for clocks so this is the right place to connect it. Giving it it's own transformer bring more benefits.