Anyone tweaked a Nakamichi Cdp-2a?

[The one]

I recently bought one on ebay. It has the tda1541a chip and sounds pretty good. I think it has some potential just wondering if anyone has gone down this road.

 

[ozone_stink]

same boat as you

I've got one as well. I'm hard-pressed to find anybody who's modded this machine on the net.

I'm thinking of getting the service manual from Anatech:

"We have the manual you inquired for. If you wish to purchase please provide your mailing address.



Cost:

Nakamichi CDP-2(A,E)/OMS-20 $15.00(US)

Shipping $ 6.00(US) or $11.00(US) outside the USA



Pay Options:

Pay Pal to avtrader@antechlabs.com

Money order

Credit Card: Visa, Master Card or Discover



Thank you,

Judy

Antech Labs, Inc.

9 Sunnen Dr., Ste. 300

St. Louis, Mo. 63143"

Haven't worked up the motivation to fork out for the manual, though.

I'm currently using the CDP to drive my Grado SR80s. I might clock it.

Please let me know if you've made any headway with this...I might be coerced into buying and sharing the service manual if I know I'm not alone in it.

 

[mudihan]

http://www.lampizator.eu/lampizator/REFERENCES/nakamichi_cdp2/nakamichi CDP2-E.html

Here is a good website for modding the CDP2A/E (A is for the N.America market and E is for Europe). I too have a CDP2A and I agree with Polish guy that it sounds excellent in its stock form. The player is very well designed and superbly built. I modded mine with better caps and opamps (OPA2107). Now the sound is at the very top level.

 

[homemade]

http://www.lampizator.eu/lampizator/REFERENCES/nakamichi_cdp2/nakamichi CDP2-E.html

Here is a good website for modding the CDP2A/E (A is for the N.America market and E is for Europe). I too have a CDP2A and I agree with Polish guy that it sounds excellent in its stock form. The player is very well designed and superbly built. I modded mine with better caps and opamps (OPA2107). Now the sound is at the very top level.

I currently own over 50 80's cd players (several doubles and triples). The majority are TDA1541 based , both Philips and Sony designed. I own Rotels , CAL's , Mod Squad , Musical Concepts , Distech to name a few. The CDP-2a in stock form is equal to the best of these. Modified , it remains my reference player. I confess that I have not owned any mega buck players , other than the $2500 CAL and the $3K McCormack Sign. My first recommendation is to change EVERY capacitor on the circuit board. I like Rubycon and Pansonic. I double the main ps caps and use smaller ZL caps near ALL ic's. I use .47 film caps(14) around the 1541 and all voltage regs are bypassed with same.. Opamps are replaced with ad826 type , and I also like the lm6172 and BB2107with poly. output caps. My output section is shielded. Bypassed the muting transistors and hi freq caps on output. A few other things were addressed , like local p/s inductors , which I cannot recall as I write. The point is that this player becomes among the best I have heard. Unfatiguing. Smooth yet powerful. If you read the above link , you will get a very good assessment of what this player is capable of. Interesting in that I owned this player long before reading his review , and I was amazed that someone else came to the same conclusion.
Well worth the effort

 

[homemade]

I'm actually surprised that this thread has not gotten greater response.

The Nak CDP-2(a) truly must be one the most UNDER rated cd players from the 80's. Certainly for TDA1541 based units. I have MANY Philips(Magnavox) players of this vintage (650 , 473 , 80 , 880 ,960 ,etc) and in stock form none perform like the CDP-2. I wondered allot about this and why , and that it must be the sum of the parts. But surly , some good old engineering come into play. I 'm guessing that the Sony digital filter is a bit better( quieter) than the Philips SAA units. Also , virtually every ic has it's own power line inductor ( not just a resistor) , the servo section is independently regulated , and the 1541 dac itself has a voltage reg for each power line , and not just a tap from the analog supply. The analog section is also separately regulated. Close coupling of the clock , digital filter ic and the 1541 must also play a role. I'm sure the grounding is properly done as well. This all makes a great platform for modding and upgrading. Unusually good design when compared to other players( then and now)

 

[anatolijs]

You read foumous Lukazs tweaks? He said that platform is good, upgrade is better soundig but not a lot like others with nasty output stage

 

[homemade]

What surpises me most is the fact that many admire the Magnavox 650 , which is of similair vintage , and over look the NAK CDP-2. There are very long threads on how the 650 is modded , yet the CDP-2a already has most of the work done already. Analog regulation , servo regulation , DAC regulation , not to mention the inductor filtering of each IC power pin. I'm tempted to install a new clock with p/s , but it is difficult to find one that will allow very close coupling to the present location. Many add on clock get installed to far away(IMO). If some would apply the effort made to the 650 , the Nak CDP-2 would be even more amazing. But that's just me

 

[ozone_stink]

I may be selling my NAK CDP-2 soonish. I've been working with sidiy over the last 3 years to build a home-brew CD-Pro2 based player featuring PMD-100, AD1862N-J and discrete I/V. It's on the forum I think I'm not supposed to talk about here...

At any rate, if anybody's interested in my NAK, it has served me well and is in really decent shape cosmetically and electro-mechanically.

The only mods I did to it was add some bypass caps under the board for most of the electrolytics and I put an Elso-Kwak clock in there fed with it's own transformer and I replaced the stock op-amps with AD-8620. -All of which are easy things to remove if you don't like them.

 

[RLR]

Rotel - RCD-02

Hello everybody, I'm new to this forum, and also new to DIY audio. I've been reading all your post about Rotel RCD-02, and I was wondering if someone could send me the service manual via e-mail.

The unit I bougth some years ago seems to be having problems reading some CD's, it is not always but it has been growing.

My idea is to replace the Laser pickup and if I probe to be a good diyer may be try some of the mods I read in your posts.


I would be very thankfull...

rigolizarraga@gmail.com

 

[dobias]

Ozone_stink,
I realize your post was a few years ago, but if you still have the Nakamichi cdp2e, I'd like to get a price.
Frank

 

[dreamth]

Does anybody have the schematic for the dac and i/v stage?The service manual shows no detail on that part.

 

[Chilkoot]

I came upon a Nak CDP-2A this week. Also wondering if anyone had further experience with these? There is someone that had posted extensive 'Stage 4' mods on You Tube videos, but they have since been removed and don't know how to contact.

This would be my first mod project, so looking for ideas. Thanks, Ed

 

[ManoloMos]

I don't understand this kind of mods, like Lampizator do. If you remove the out filter for a tube, you send sample ultrasonic signal to the amplifier, this is a nonsense and I never understood. I think the audiophiles are some kind of believers of some facts without common sense. They says it sound better, but when double blind proves are done, nobody can tell the difference.
If all cd builders put a output sample filter, are for some reason.