Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

Just fixed my error. Will have a listen tomorrow.

I am using a DIY "super regulator" that was the subject of a thread on Pink Fish Media. I think Martin (Acoustica) had some input into it. It uses a 7805, so no "magic smoke" hopefully.

Pic of schematic here. There was an error on one of the pics (and it may be this one? - the tranny was shown the wrong way round) (mine are the right way round :))

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
The tranny is o.k. but the 10k resistor on the right can't be correct... It's in series with the output, so there won't be much voltage left behind it under load. I think it's not supposed to be there, I don't see it on the board in the other pictures.

It's basically a standard setup with a capacitance multiplier in front of it. Nice cheapo but effective way to reduce noise :). If you use 7805 you won't have to worry about the output voltage.

Ray
 
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Hi All,
I bought Marantz CD53 recently. It works well. I want to mod the player. First start with the basic mod. As mentioned in the thread all the 63 mods can be applied. I want to first upgrade PSU mod. I am not able to go through all the pages. Can you please help in modding PSU first? And can you please list me what are the mods can be done in CD53?

Thanks
Badri
 
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Joined 2006
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After modding a Marantz CD63 and a CD67OSE I decided to make a list of all the various mod's I found here and elsewhere on the internet.
I'd like to donate my files to this forum, for all to enjoy! :D

Of course I do not pretend this list to be complete. :whazzat:
This is all I've done to the players so far and more good tips are welcome!

Greetings,

Ray.

Hi All,
I bought Marantz CD53 recently. It works well. I want to mod the player. First start with the basic mod. As mentioned in the thread all the 63 mods can be applied. I want to first upgrade PSU mod. I am not able to go through all the pages. Can you please help in modding PSU first? And can you please list me what are the mods can be done in CD53?

Thanks
Badri
Just go to post 1 and follow the pdf
 
Just fixed my error. Will have a listen tomorrow.

I am using a DIY "super regulator" that was the subject of a thread on Pink Fish Media. I think Martin (Acoustica) had some input into it. It uses a 7805, so no "magic smoke" hopefully.

Pic of schematic here. There was an error on one of the pics (and it may be this one? - the tranny was shown the wrong way round) (mine are the right way round :))

Wow! Not seen that before! In what way is it "super"? Even aside the massive resistor on the output how does throttling the input to the reg assist? I'm no expert but I'd say someone posted that circuit on April fools day!!!
 
Hi Badri,

All the mods for the 63 can be applied to the 53. Look on my website for more recent modslist. The one for the 63-KI is the most fancy one.

You should start by upgrading the capacitors and rectifier diodes in the power supply. Then upgrade the capacitors around the IC's. Remove the muting transistors and the output capacitors. Add a decent clock. For the 53, add some low-drop 8V regulators for the +/- 10V driver voltage and increase the capacitors for those voltages, or add an extra transformer for the driver section. Upgrade the filter components around the opamps and the opamps too. Or go fancy right away and add a DOS output stage that replaces all the opamp circuitry.

It will already be a completely different player after this, in a positive sense :)

Regards,

Ray
 
Wow! Not seen that before! In what way is it "super"? Even aside the massive resistor on the output how does throttling the input to the reg assist? I'm no expert but I'd say someone posted that circuit on April fools day!!!

Hi Ian,

The 10k output R is a typo I guess :)

It's a very simple but effective circuit, the transistor acts as a voltage follower AKA emitter follower. Any voltage on the base is present at the emitter, minus the Ube voltage drop, which is about 0.65V. The voltage on the base is created by the low-pass filter 10k/3u3. This is a 5Hz filter, so the DC voltage there is quite quiet :). The transistor buffers this voltage and provides the current needed by the circuit behind it, which flows in from the collector.

There's a nice article on Acoustica.org.uk, see part two of 'Using three-pin regulators'. The Flea also uses this as a front-end :)

Ray
 
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Thanks Ray, I've learned something today!!!! I'll have a read over on martins page a bit later ;)

Great! Glad to be of help :D

I should have said that the schematic I used does not have the 10k on the output, as per the pic of my reg resting on a cork.

I figured that already as I didn't see the extra resistor in the cork-pic. Besides that, the regulator can't possibly work with the 10k in place ;)

A new type of 'floating' regulator :clown:
 
The regulators I'm planning on making are similar to Puffin's except I plan to use either LM317 or LT317. Just trying to decide whether the difference in output noise (0.003% vs 0.001%) is worth the extra expense. What do people think? Will the difference in noise translate to an audible difference? It appeared, according to LTSpice that the tracking prereg didn't have any significant performance advantage over a more basic regulator.



Ray,
Will be doing the experiment tonight to see if the noise I'm seeing is real or not. Will report back...

Cheers,

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

Ok, I expect it to be fine. The noise is probably coming from all over the place. The standard regs generally don't oscillate, not even with huge caps on the output.

As for the LT317, if they are only a few bucks more expensive i'd say go for it. Less noise is better, but I must add that in the player's digital section it is not as important as for analog. The main goal for digital is to separate the various IC's from each other and keep the noise they generate from spreading.

Ray
 
Ok, so I added a reg next to the oscillator (in the position shown in the Acoustica pic) and 2 more at random really:D. One replacing a 4.7k near the Servo area and one near the bottom of the board (near the flat ribbon cable thingy)

Initial impressions were that it sounded different, good different, not bad different!:D

I have a total bass reproduction area of 92" and as you can imagine bass is very important to me. I thought that the bass was a bit dry, punchy but less full.

I played the Gotan Project - Il Lunatico CD. If you know this CD you will know that it has great dynamics and bass. Track 11 felt like I was being pummelled by pnematic drills and air hammers, so dynamic, deep and tight was the bass. At one point something fell off the wall! proof that the walls were really moving. I am lucky enough to have my own room I constructed over 4 months last year and so I can go deaf and many other things induced by loud music, with no worry about troubling the neighbours!

My question is, is it worth fitting the remaining 14 regs (I hear that there are a possible 17 you can fit?) If I lose the SQ I have right now I will be disappointed.

Rob.
 
Experiment conducted. It seems, Ray, you were correct. I have learnt something. I tried making a single turn loop of different sizes using the scope leads and could see a difference in noise measurement. Conclusion there is still noise but not as much as I thought. :)

While I was at it I decided to complete the component changes detailed on your PDF. Now I'm ready to start creating and adding regulators. Was thinking that the DAC should get 4 LT317 based regs and the Opamps get 2 LT317 + 2 LT337 based regs as well. The rest of the CD player will get LM317 regs.
 
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I thought that the bass was a bit dry, punchy but less full.

Track 11 felt like I was being pummelled by pnematic drills and air hammers, so dynamic, deep and tight was the bass.

My question is, is it worth fitting the remaining 14 regs (I hear that there are a possible 17 you can fit?) If I lose the SQ I have right now I will be disappointed.

Rob.

Hi Rob... when you add definition, initially you can feel the system to be less full, but as per your last comments you know now bass is there... just more tight.

Keep up the good work... I only stopped at 11 regs because my machine became too full and difficult to mod.
 
Experiment conducted. It seems, Ray, you were correct. I have learnt something. I tried making a single turn loop of different sizes using the scope leads and could see a difference in noise measurement. Conclusion there is still noise but not as much as I thought. :)

While I was at it I decided to complete the component changes detailed on your PDF. Now I'm ready to start creating and adding regulators. Was thinking that the DAC should get 4 LT317 based regs and the Opamps get 2 LT317 + 2 LT337 based regs as well. The rest of the CD player will get LM317 regs.

Ok, I thought it would be like that. If you want to measure the real regulator noise, you have to do it in a controlled environment, not in a CD player with lots of noisy digital circuitry inside :)

Looks good on the regs!

Ray