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Yesterday evening I stuck a load of bitumen pads on the inside of the player. I went to Ray's site and printed out pics of what he had done. Mine looks remarkably similar to his inside now. I also stuck some on the underside of the metal restraining bar. I've yet to put some on the hood. Also I didn't put any on the right (vertical) side of the player (when viewed from the front) since it may interfere with mods I'll be doing in the future. See pics below.
Today I disabled the headphones by removing C901, C902, U271 and U272. I also removed the 2 fuses and hard-wired to complete the circuit. When I put it all back together and switched on, I at first thought the player was not working, since there didn't appear to be any illumination on the front panel. On closer inspection it was lit up but much dimmer. I pressed the switch on the front panel to turn it brighter and the switch worked, but the whole panel is dimmer. Is this usual? Have I done something wrong inadvertently?
Also on reading about disabling the muting circuit does this mean that if I carry out this mod I will be unable to mute from the remote control? Or does this just refer to muting effected by the headphone circuit?
I listened this evening and the mid is clearer (I'm hearing more in the mix) and I'm sure the bass is tightening up. Is it better? No, not yet, as it's slightly harsh at higher frequencies. Mind you I've still loads to do including fitting bigger smoothing caps in place of some caps already fitted.
In fact my plans have now changed from initially doing Ray's mods to something more exotic. I will be adding transformers externally in another case and using better components internally. I'm fortunate in that I have a guru who is giving me plenty of help. I'll post as I go along.
Yesterday evening I stuck a load of bitumen pads on the inside of the player. I went to Ray's site and printed out pics of what he had done. Mine looks remarkably similar to his inside now. I also stuck some on the underside of the metal restraining bar. I've yet to put some on the hood. Also I didn't put any on the right (vertical) side of the player (when viewed from the front) since it may interfere with mods I'll be doing in the future. See pics below.
Today I disabled the headphones by removing C901, C902, U271 and U272. I also removed the 2 fuses and hard-wired to complete the circuit. When I put it all back together and switched on, I at first thought the player was not working, since there didn't appear to be any illumination on the front panel. On closer inspection it was lit up but much dimmer. I pressed the switch on the front panel to turn it brighter and the switch worked, but the whole panel is dimmer. Is this usual? Have I done something wrong inadvertently?
Also on reading about disabling the muting circuit does this mean that if I carry out this mod I will be unable to mute from the remote control? Or does this just refer to muting effected by the headphone circuit?
I listened this evening and the mid is clearer (I'm hearing more in the mix) and I'm sure the bass is tightening up. Is it better? No, not yet, as it's slightly harsh at higher frequencies. Mind you I've still loads to do including fitting bigger smoothing caps in place of some caps already fitted.
In fact my plans have now changed from initially doing Ray's mods to something more exotic. I will be adding transformers externally in another case and using better components internally. I'm fortunate in that I have a guru who is giving me plenty of help. I'll post as I go along.
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Yep!!! That's one of the reasons the c2 came about.
The c2 is awesome, spower reg and 1/2 and 1/4 outputs. You'll need a 16 xtal direct to the dac and the 1/2 for the servo.......do it, you wont regret it!!!!!
Hey Brent! Nice move on the SA-11
I'm hoping to get my hands on one in time, only thing is.... it's over three grand over here
Regards,
Ray
re clock
Thx ian dont half miss the clock in my system made a world of difference.biggest mod for me.
alan
Thx ian dont half miss the clock in my system made a world of difference.biggest mod for me.
alan
Yep and the C2 will blow any eBay clock away! It won't even be close especially when you start adding the clock direct to the DAC decoder and servo.
There is a document I wrote (plus lots I found on this forum) about advanced clocking for TDA1541 based players that retain over sampling on Brent's clock page. It's bit different in the 63 but the same principles apply. Have a read ;-)
There is a document I wrote (plus lots I found on this forum) about advanced clocking for TDA1541 based players that retain over sampling on Brent's clock page. It's bit different in the 63 but the same principles apply. Have a read ;-)
Hey Brent! Nice move on the SA-11
I'm hoping to get my hands on one in time, only thing is.... it's over three grand over here
Regards,
Ray
Hi Ray
It is a very nice bit of kit. I got mine in silver to match my amps. I actually prefer the looks to the SA-7.
I got mine ex demo. Used by Marantz at a London show this year for 2 days and is in mint condition with less than 20 hours playing time. Got it for £2K
Brent
In my last attempt i clocked dac and servo the results were amazing,clock died so im back to beefed up psu 4 tsups, zlgs analogue rails, and nichicon ls on the digital rails,hdam bypass,lm4562s and driver ics regs done sounds ok but nowhere near the clarity it had with the clock installed.
alan
alan
Had an interesting fault when I reassembled after bypassing the hdam and replacing the RCAs.
While not plugged into an amp, all seemed ok, but when I plugged it into my amp the drive started, but then stopped and spun the wrong way for a couple of seconds. Thats all it would do.
I had wired ground from the old RCA ground to the tags on the new RCA's but had left the plastic insulators on so they were not in contact with the chassis. Once I removed the insulators, all worked again. Is this the only ground for the board?
Dificult to tell on first listening tests as it's been apart for a while so hard to compare.
Moving on....On Ray's list a number of power caps are bypassed by 100n PPS which I seem to keep destroying when I solder them. Do these make much diference? Can I use something else? I have some left over 47nf MKS left over, would these do?
While not plugged into an amp, all seemed ok, but when I plugged it into my amp the drive started, but then stopped and spun the wrong way for a couple of seconds. Thats all it would do.
I had wired ground from the old RCA ground to the tags on the new RCA's but had left the plastic insulators on so they were not in contact with the chassis. Once I removed the insulators, all worked again. Is this the only ground for the board?
Dificult to tell on first listening tests as it's been apart for a while so hard to compare.
Moving on....On Ray's list a number of power caps are bypassed by 100n PPS which I seem to keep destroying when I solder them. Do these make much diference? Can I use something else? I have some left over 47nf MKS left over, would these do?
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@Brent: Sorry to hear about the 63, man. I was concerned that something might have happened. These boards are so brittle. I hope you'll continue to lurk here and leave the docs on your site so others may follow your tracks while you blaze a new trail in SA land. Hopefully the SA PCB is a bit more resilient.
@bousie: I get the best sound with the back panel fully screwed on (underneath as well), plastic insulators off and RCAs screwed on tight with wire to original ground. There are some other ground connections on the back panel for other connectors but everything is starred to the output ground if memory serves.
The bypass caps seem like a bit of a black art and heavily dependent on component choice. I tried 100n PPS with Black Gates and didn't like what I heard. I've got some 220n MKS4s on the output pre-reg and op-amp power caps only at the moment and it sounds very nice. I'd say try the MKS and listen - they're easy enough to take off again.
@bousie: I get the best sound with the back panel fully screwed on (underneath as well), plastic insulators off and RCAs screwed on tight with wire to original ground. There are some other ground connections on the back panel for other connectors but everything is starred to the output ground if memory serves.
The bypass caps seem like a bit of a black art and heavily dependent on component choice. I tried 100n PPS with Black Gates and didn't like what I heard. I've got some 220n MKS4s on the output pre-reg and op-amp power caps only at the moment and it sounds very nice. I'd say try the MKS and listen - they're easy enough to take off again.
The boards are not the greatest on the 63 as we know (not bad for the price point though) but having said that my pcb was the original one with no previous issues. The pcbs in the SA are proper quality pcbs (glass reinforced i think), you could use them as a diving board. Print quality is as good as it gets too.
Brent
Hi Ray
It is a very nice bit of kit. I got mine in silver to match my amps. I actually prefer the looks to the SA-7.
I got mine ex demo. Used by Marantz at a London show this year for 2 days and is in mint condition with less than 20 hours playing time. Got it for £2K
Brent
Nice
I'm hoping to get one on the second hand market some day, for about the same amount in euro's. But they are scarce...
Ray