I took my player to my guru one evening during the week having explained the problem and he said we'd do some fault-finding. We removed the pcb and he looked at the underneath. Within about a minute he said: "You've got a dry joint." He soldered it and we did a few other things and put it back together. Yes, all is now nice and bright. That would have taken me months to find! Knowledge is power!
We also more or less built 1 flea, but couldn't complete since we lost the little SMD components. AAAARRRRRGGGGHHH! Ray is very kindly sending some more. Also I have another flea on its way (+ 2 oscillators from Tentlabs). Onwards and upwards.
I almost lost a couple of those SMDs on my first attempt as well. I found one on the floor at the other end of the room, and another encased in a blob of solder inside my solder sucker.
You'll learn to find dry joints quickly yourself with a bit of practice. The display circuit doesn't have that many to check. It's all in the service manual.
You'll learn to find dry joints quickly yourself with a bit of practice. The display circuit doesn't have that many to check. It's all in the service manual.
I just finished trying those WIMAs tagged across my op-amp caps for a full two weeks. I liked the extra treble detail, but eventually came to the conclusion that the sound is overall more balanced and realistic without them. I just finished whipping them out and will probably stay like this for a while until that inevitable itch returns.
OK, it's been over a fortnight; can someone else post now please? I don't want the responsibility of killing this thread as well as the PM66KI one.
I replaced my bridge diodes with Schottkys a couple of weeks ago, taking some shortcuts across the thin trace between the PSU and smoothing caps. I also took the film bypass caps off the op-amps. I think it sounds amazing now - the vocal imaging is spooky and bass guitar is the most linear and realistically 'stringy' I've heard. Even with a DOS build in progress, the upgradeitis seems like it may be cured for a while. I can't stomach the idea of taking a soldering iron to it right now.
I'd like to know how the rest of you are getting on...
I replaced my bridge diodes with Schottkys a couple of weeks ago, taking some shortcuts across the thin trace between the PSU and smoothing caps. I also took the film bypass caps off the op-amps. I think it sounds amazing now - the vocal imaging is spooky and bass guitar is the most linear and realistically 'stringy' I've heard. Even with a DOS build in progress, the upgradeitis seems like it may be cured for a while. I can't stomach the idea of taking a soldering iron to it right now.
I'd like to know how the rest of you are getting on...
I've been checking this page regularly recently and all contributors have obviously been otherwise engaged, probably totally mesmerised by the Olympics... as I have been. Great show by GB, btw.
I have recently constructed a 2nd flea but am waiting for my guru to come back to me so I can finish them both off, as I still need to add the SMD components and the oscillators. I need his help with this.
I have also purchased a 2nd toroidal transformer 50VA and can't wait to set up the fleas (and I believe I also need a power supply with regs to feed the fleas)... again I need my guru for help. I understand that this will transport my player into the higher stratosphere!!! I can't wait for the 'spooky vocal imaging' and 'stringy bass guitar'.
I will be buying some regs from Brent also soon.
I recently purchased a Weller solder station on ebay and then bought a number 7 tip, which meant i was able to construct the fleas without lifting any pads... result!! I am learning a lot as I continue on this journey.
One more thing... I did the muting circuit modification and it made a discernible difference with greater clarity in the midband and tighter bass, this making a much greater difference than the headphones modification.
Hi Ben
Good stuff. Enjoy the player for a while until the itchy fingers starts to get too strong again
I have pretty much finished my SA11, I must have put 12 - 16 solid hours into it - SA-11S2
Very very happy with it.
Brent
Bloody hell Brent. Just checked your page – some serious work there in a very short space of time. The burning question is: How does it sound compared to your highly-modded 63? Could you elaborate over and above 'very very happy with it'?
Mmmm... that could be my 3rd upcoming project after fettling my pre and active x-over! I haven't a clue what I'm doing but I'm getting a taste for this modding.
The SA11-S2 now matches the 63 on treble detail and beats it in every other department. Bass goes even lower , stereo separation is better, dynamics are better and midrange projects out much more. A lot of this is probably down to the very very low noise floor of the player.
I have not heard a player under £20K sound better than this. Thomo (Lee) is coming round on Wednesday night for a listening session, it will be interesting what he thinks to it.
Brent
I have not heard a player under £20K sound better than this. Thomo (Lee) is coming round on Wednesday night for a listening session, it will be interesting what he thinks to it.
Brent
Hello all,
Have been reading sections of this thread but with all the will in the world can't read it all. Please could someone help me with regards to which ICs are the most important to add regulators to.
My player (cd67) has been lightly modded so far with a Kwak clock 7, Opamp upgrage (OPA627, Opa132... I think), HDAM removal, muting circuit removal, headphone circuit removal, output cap removal and output filter upgrade.
The next stage is to add some regulators. I notice that you can add up 17. This seems a bit excessive at the moment so would only want to add them where really necessary. Was thinking about adding 2 for the DAC, 1 for the decoder, 1 for the driver chips and 2 for the Op amps. Then have three transformers one for digital, one for analogue and 1 for the op amps.
Does this sound reasonable?
Any comments would be much appreciated..
Have been reading sections of this thread but with all the will in the world can't read it all. Please could someone help me with regards to which ICs are the most important to add regulators to.
My player (cd67) has been lightly modded so far with a Kwak clock 7, Opamp upgrage (OPA627, Opa132... I think), HDAM removal, muting circuit removal, headphone circuit removal, output cap removal and output filter upgrade.
The next stage is to add some regulators. I notice that you can add up 17. This seems a bit excessive at the moment so would only want to add them where really necessary. Was thinking about adding 2 for the DAC, 1 for the decoder, 1 for the driver chips and 2 for the Op amps. Then have three transformers one for digital, one for analogue and 1 for the op amps.
Does this sound reasonable?
Any comments would be much appreciated..
I would also like to add more regs to my '63. I attach a pic of an LM317 added to the power rail (near the oscillator crystal - I think?) I found this on the Acoustica site.
acoustica.org.uk: modifying the Marantz CD63, part 1
I would like to know exactly where to fit the reg i.e IN, OUT & GRD and where to cut the tracks.
This is where it goes I think :-
acoustica.org.uk: modifying the Marantz CD63, part 1
I would like to know exactly where to fit the reg i.e IN, OUT & GRD and where to cut the tracks.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
This is where it goes I think :-
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Last edited:
Last week I did visit Brents house. That cd player is amazing, so much realism!
It's a bit more detailed than the old cd63, but the real differences for me were in soundstaging, mid-range clarity and bass depth, detail and power. Treble seemed about the same as before.
On one Linn records track you could hear the air-conditioning in the background of the venue! That sort of thing adds a lot to the perceived atmosphere, and makes you feel like you are there.
Lee
It's a bit more detailed than the old cd63, but the real differences for me were in soundstaging, mid-range clarity and bass depth, detail and power. Treble seemed about the same as before.
On one Linn records track you could hear the air-conditioning in the background of the venue! That sort of thing adds a lot to the perceived atmosphere, and makes you feel like you are there.
Lee
Hi,
You are on the right track with these mods, sounds good!
You can add a lot of regs indeed... I think you have the most important ones listed here, except the drivers, they are already regulated in the CD67 so they don't need one.
For future reference: the DAC has three supply-pins, so you can add upto three regs here. For the opamps you could use four to separate left and right channel supplies. The decoder has five, but this chip is rather picky on separating supply-pins, so be careful here.
Ray
This is the famous Acoustica Clock Hack
The regulator is inserted where the 4.7 ohm safety resistor used to be. You can recognize them on the board: they are mounted 'in the air', at some distance from the board. Most chips have such a resistor in series with the supply-line. So it's very easy to separate parts of the circuit from the main supply: by removing the resistor, the section behind it is cut from the main 5V power. And it creates a perfect insertion-point for a new regulator to be added. This is where the output goes.
The new regulator can be powered from a new external supply, but you can also use the supply from the player. In the CD 63, all 5V comes from Q811, and this regulator is fed from C813. This is the point where you can hook-up the input of the new reg (the positive terminal that is). The GND terminal goes to the board's ground-plane on top.
Ray
Last edited: