Thank you very much for your responses. I am changing my ISP at the moment and have not had access to the internet for a few days.
I hope I am not stealing too much out of Iko’s thread. This thread needs to be awaken from time to time. For those who are after the ultimate, no-compromise regulator, the Iko reg is one of the best options. I understood I could get better responses here than starting a new thread, but am conscious that I won’t be going too far down.
Most recommended regulators here look fine to me. However, many increase the output impedance. They may behave well in simulations or in “class A” circuit with a constant load. I am not sure how they would behave with “class AB” load with signals of transient / dynamic nature. The Iko reg, Salas reg and Jung reg are reportedly superior in sound quality probably due to their diminishing low output impedance right to high frequencies.
If I had the electronic circuit knowledge, I would probably take Keantoken’s advice and start a new thread on a discrete June reg. My knowledge is too poor for that and I won’t have the time anyway.
The TeddyPardonSuperReg has C-multipliers at the output which increase the output impedance. Iko’s circuit is two C-multipliers in serious. If I were to try the TeddySuperReg, it would be easier to try the Iko’s C-multiplier before the Marantz reg.
Stormsonic’s middle schematic is the closest to the Marantz regulator circuit I have been thinking about replacing or enhancing.
You may be interested in reading this:
I bought my Marantz SA11S1 based on the recommendation from a trusted friend. He had the Marantz, Mark Levinson and Audio Research CD players, out of which he liked the Marantz the most. With a reference level system running, my SA11 is obviously the “cheapest” component in the audio chain at just above $3000 retail. So I have been looking for a better CD player to match the level of performance of my system. I built everything (and designed the active loudspeakers) in my audio chain except the CD player which I could not build.
The stocked SA11 has the typical Marantz house sound. I replaced all the filter caps from Elna Silmic / Cerefine to Rubycon ZL and replaced the output caps from Silmic to Vishay MKP. The Marantz house sound is gone and it sounds a lot more neutral – it no longer sounds like any Marantz though.
A week ago I compared side by side my lightly modified SA11 to the EMM Labs CDSA ($15000) and dCS Puccini ($25000). I also invited the ex-president of the Sydney Audio club, JM, to join me in the audition of the CDSA. We were comparing oranges to apples. The CDSA and Puccini gave a much more detailed and rich sound but also more colourations at the same time. At the end, I did not know which one to choose. On many sound tracks the CDSA and Puccini are more attractive, on others they lost to the SA11. On drums, organ music and sopranos the SA11 killed the CDSA and Puccini. JM put it this way: The CDSA sounds like the best of HiFi. The SA11 sounds closer to the music.
So there you go. Perhaps I don’t need to stretch my wallet to get an expensive CD player. The thing that looks “promising” is that I have measured a few mV ripples on the rails on the Marantz, which means it has a scope to be improved upon. Perhaps if I can get the rails as flat as the Iko reg (which is a thin flat line) it would throw the expensive CDSA / Puccini into the water?
Andrew, no, I can not fit the Iko reg outside the Marantz box.
For now, it seems it is worthwhile to build a C-multiplier and put it in front of the Marantz reg and see how it sounds. I happen to have a pair of D44H and D45H in my part pin.
Any more advices are welcome.
Regards,
Bill
