SimontY said:
Fully agree, though just to point out that the ceramics were used in the 53/57. The bog-standard 63's that I have/had all had mylars (and also the full complement of Silmics and Cerafines as it happens). Just the flimsy casework and the transformer seemed to be different. (OFC copper in SE and toroid in KI.)
One thing I did notice is that the resistors in my Japanese 63 were yellow (like the Singapore-made 67SE that I use now) but the ones in my Singapore-made 63 (picked up recently as a spare) are blue. Now normally that means metal film does it not? Bound to have some effect on SQ if so....
Glenn2 said:
Nope.
Indeed, neither am I
Yes, 2200u iirc, Pana FC.
Well that's not desirable, I'm trying to keep the impedance down! lol
Well the above situation sounds rather like what I have. 2200u at psu > wiring > 2200u > super-reg > 33u + 1u > wiring > local cap (either Ruby ZA 100u or clock board's own psu input).
The two that between them cause a problem are Audiocom.
Nope, I removed the loops.
That would be nice
marcusdeming said:
I have no first hand experience of upgrading these caps, but this was discussed the other day. I'd say do it, but not as a matter of urgency. Urgent upgrades are damping, feet, reclocking, op-amps, dc blocking cap removal. Then power supplies and caps. Very much my opinion, not necessarily that of others.
To be honest, there are so many mods needed to make this player sound as it should, you just have to trudge through them and do them all. It takes many many mods for it to become detailed and have decent treble. I'm afraid no single mod will fix the bad sound (loose, harsh, muddy bass, rough top end, lack of detail, no control etc.).
Simon
Hi simon,
I was actually thinking of removing them as removing them are fairly fast, esp with the extra trainings with the previous few mod.
In fact i am planning for some caps upgrade in the servo, dac and decoder section as mentioned by you previously. These areas require the luxury caps right..?
If the budgets allow, i am planning to upgrade the output filter section as what the mod list suggested.
Regards,
Marcus
I was actually thinking of removing them as removing them are fairly fast, esp with the extra trainings with the previous few mod.
In fact i am planning for some caps upgrade in the servo, dac and decoder section as mentioned by you previously. These areas require the luxury caps right..?
If the budgets allow, i am planning to upgrade the output filter section as what the mod list suggested.
Regards,
Marcus
Simon - what I said about simple solution? Scratch that! What you've descibed sounds good...
Do Audiocom supply application notes? If so do they warn against low-ESR caps hanging off the outputs?
I don't know enough about them to be honest.
One last thing I thought of which is probably only relevent to the 67SE but I'll mention it anyway. When you isolate the DAC digital +5V from the analogue +5V (disregarding clock gate +5V), on the 67 you have to re-route the dig +5v also to some logic inputs that are held high (via resistors) that would otherwise hang from the new +5V analogue supply you added. On the 67 it involved removing two or three jumpers and connecting the input of one to the output of the another, leaving the analogue in-between but isolated. May be similar on the 63 but I really don't remember. Not sure if that made any sense either!
Do Audiocom supply application notes? If so do they warn against low-ESR caps hanging off the outputs?
I don't know enough about them to be honest.
One last thing I thought of which is probably only relevent to the 67SE but I'll mention it anyway. When you isolate the DAC digital +5V from the analogue +5V (disregarding clock gate +5V), on the 67 you have to re-route the dig +5v also to some logic inputs that are held high (via resistors) that would otherwise hang from the new +5V analogue supply you added. On the 67 it involved removing two or three jumpers and connecting the input of one to the output of the another, leaving the analogue in-between but isolated. May be similar on the 63 but I really don't remember. Not sure if that made any sense either!
marcusdeming said:
Hi Marcus,
Don't remove those small filter caps (the orange blobs) or there'll be no sound. Either upgrade (to a type mentioned earlier) or leave them for now and eventually replace the whole section with Ray's output stage.
Servo, DAC and decoder all require luxury caps to provide the best sound, correct.
Regards,
Simon
Glenn2 said:Simon - what I said about simple solution? Scratch that! What you've descibed sounds good...
Do Audiocom supply application notes? If so do they warn against low-ESR caps hanging off the outputs?
I don't know enough about them to be honest.
One last thing I thought of which is probably only relevent to the 67SE but I'll mention it anyway. When you isolate the DAC digital +5V from the analogue +5V (disregarding clock gate +5V), on the 67 you have to re-route the dig +5v also to some logic inputs that are held high (via resistors) that would otherwise hang from the new +5V analogue supply you added. On the 67 it involved removing two or three jumpers and connecting the input of one to the output of the another, leaving the analogue in-between but isolated. May be similar on the 63 but I really don't remember. Not sure if that made any sense either!
That kinda makes sense... Brent noticed there was a similar problem in the CD63, and luckily for me he fixed mine whilst rebuilding it after I destroyed the servo etc.
Audiocom don't seem to offer any advice on using them. I think they'd rather fit them themselves!
marcusdeming said:
Ray is not (yet) selling a board. He designed one for his own use and one or two other members have implemented it in their players. I have heard one player with it installed and I must recommend it, as the player sounded much better than mine (but had MANY other mods, as it was Rowemeister's player).
Get to work on the other, more important mods, like power supplies and reclocking, then come back to the output stage. Start from the beginning.
OT
My amp is made just from the application notes for the LM3886 power op-amp chip, it's not a gainclone (it has big dual supplies and no R-core transformer). I can happily provide photos and the circuit diagram if you e-mail me. I will get it all on a website at some point!
Simon
marcusdeming said:
I think that's mostly it. It very important to leave in the resistors powering the digital circuits to keep the noise from getting to the analog DAC power supplies. BTW, the bypasses CD12, CD13 have a major impact on the sound. I tried some different film caps and used a pair of 0.47uf/50v MKP axial caps that fit standing up - I don't know where to suggest you find some, however. Its a location that requires trial and error listening.
I still have my headphone circuit in place - I didn't think it was too important to remove it, but could be wrong.
I think the next most cost-effective mod is replacing the stock rectifiers with MBR1100 types. You might as well order other parts at the same time, though, probably analog section ones before digital.
Glenn2 said:Simon - have you tried feeding your DAC, decoder and servo supplies from different electricity sub-stations yet? I've heard the improvement is remarkable!
Yes Glen, but the National Grid charged too much money for my dedicated lines, so I abandoned that particular wiring scheme
6h5c said:
Looks familiar
Ray
Ahah rich people, they replace Cerafine Caps!
I have questions: may the Led on the Flea be moved to somewhere else in order to make a kind of "power on" light? I think in the middle of the main switch will be nice.
Also, is there any backdraw of having 2 long wires to fit switch on the back of the CDP linked to U108 wich power on the display?
A thank to Rowemeister, I've changed with succes the ratio of gain on the HP opamp, from 15/12 to 10/100 +1 as it is inverted or something like this
