Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

Well, it's normal then. I have only seen this with cheap machines.

If it was built during the Philips era, it is a cheap machine. I agree, poor software and maybe they were only saving program memory space by leaving out a check step. No matter, it is how it is.
 
I modded my cd63se about 10 years ago (the full Ray program incl regs and clock) and recently took it out of the moving boxes after 2 intercontinental moves. Unfortunately it wasn’t working and when opening it up the glue on bitumen sheets I had lined the casing with had melted and it was a big goopy mess.

I cleaned it up but the player does still not work. I’ve checked the mods incl clock and all seem ok.

Behavior is either one of the below, I can’t find a pattern:
1) with or without disc loaded there is a bit of back and forth spinning, stopping and then the motor spins like mad counterclockwise
2) with or without disc loaded, first a bit of grinding noise, then the laser bobs up 6 times and then displays ‘no disc’.

Service mode shows Err 02. I’ve already replaced the laser assembly with a fresh one off eBay (yes I know they are not flawless) but both show the same behavior.

Any ideas on how to resolve and/or diagnose?
 
That would be dependent on the current state of the analogue output stage - we have no idea what have you modifid and how. Dried lytics would be a starting point for suspect search.

Are the output RCA sockets original?

I’ve replaced opamps, bypassed hdam, and removed the muting circuit. Also replaced the rca sockets, the new ones are not isolated and therefore connect to chassis.

And indeed replacing the rca’s was the solution. Now playing and comparing versus Philips cd880 stock.
 
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the new ones are not isolated and therefore connect to chassis.
And so they feed all the mains noise picked up by the chassis straight into analogue signal ground 🙂

CD-43_001.jpg


What I did on my test rig of CD-43 (same family as CD-63):
Replaced the RCA sockets with ones isolated from the chassis (for curiosity sake added another set for DC output straight from opamps):
CD-43_002.jpg


Separated analogue ground star point from digital ground tracks:
CD-43_003.jpg


Re-wired the digital ground connections:
CD-43_004.jpg
 
Hi madis64,
Please explain more clearly what you are asking. What do you mean by lower line? Do you mean less expensive - so they saved costs by not using a stage that would be helpful?

I am familiar with the HDAM and certainly op amps. What I see here was a circuit bypassed for no reason. Curious.
 
What do you mean by lower line? Do you mean less expensive - so they saved costs by not using a stage that would be helpful?
Marantz made CD-43/53/63 models according to the same basic solution - 43 being the "lowest in line" having no HDAM and output taken from the opamps.
63 had the HDAM added and capacitors increased, together with the price tag.
So my question is - what good does the HDAM module actually do in the signal path?

Full disclosure - my main CD-67 has all the opamps and HDAM chain removed (from the main output path) and is playing via Ray's DOS. 🙂
 
I would have to examine each schematic to give you a correct answer. The HDAM does have very low output impedance and higher current drive capacity normally.

What I will say is that a manufacturer will not spend money to reduce the performance of their equipment. As for your machine, whatever you want. I'd have to examine what you did exactly to comment, and I have no wish to do that. Marantz design was generally pretty good, and deviating from a good design shouldn't be done lightly.

I get stuff in all the time that has been "improved". Most of the time to get back the performance it had, I have to undo the changes and return it to factory configuration. This is measured response. Customers tend to prefer the original setup once they have had the "improved" unit for a while.

About non-oversampling. If you didn't install the 7th or 9th order filter back in the output, you messed up big time. 44.1 KHz into your gear. Nice. Oversampling was developed for very good reasons, and done reasonably well is a large improvement over non-oversampling. I learned on non-oversampling stuff and all the way through. I know better. Any circuit done cheaply doesn't sound good, it isn't the basic design, it's the execution in that case.
 
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We aren't disputing anything.

Cable and input stage capacitance since the manufacturer doesn't know what you are driving. Again, I'd have to see exactly what you did and measure performance to comment, which I am not able to do. I'll answer in general terms.