Re: Thanks for all and good luck to ya all!
Rest assured you are a loved one.
Never say never my friend. (Live is not easy here also.... I am suffering from a serious lack of €€€€ and also know that working hard does not mean earning more... at least today)
Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards
Ricardo
Hi MatthieuMalefoda said:
Rest assured you are a loved one.
Never say never my friend. (Live is not easy here also.... I am suffering from a serious lack of €€€€ and also know that working hard does not mean earning more... at least today)
Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards
Ricardo
Hi guys. I know this have been asked before but due to urgency..I'd like to ask for some advise to fix my CD63. The CDP was playing find when suddenly there is no sound but the display time is moving. I thought it could be some problem between the CDP and DAC but after checking, it is still the same. I tried switching off the CDP and on again and this time, I can hear the CD spin very fast but not reading the disc. I have to switch it off..then on and the spinning is back to normal but not able to read the disc. Does this means its time to change the lens?
Sound too bright!
Hi, I've just finished modding my CD67 SE and now I think the sounds is too bright. I've got a standard 63 which sounds like its behind a wall by comparison but its much warmer. So far i've done the following:-
Bypass HDAM (braided line from U216/217 to C658/657 (c655-658 & R651-654 removed).
C611-614 replace with Rubycon ZA 220uf
Op amps LM4562 (really bright)
Op amps AD825's on brown dogs (still too bright)
Trichord Clock4 on the DAC only
Seperate super reg for DAC (0v and unregulated feed taken from Q811 directly to super reg Output via 3300uf Elan to U203 with U200 removed.
With what I have done (op amps and clock from my old player) I expected excellent results but I'm surprisingly dissapointed. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ian
Hi, I've just finished modding my CD67 SE and now I think the sounds is too bright. I've got a standard 63 which sounds like its behind a wall by comparison but its much warmer. So far i've done the following:-
Bypass HDAM (braided line from U216/217 to C658/657 (c655-658 & R651-654 removed).
C611-614 replace with Rubycon ZA 220uf
Op amps LM4562 (really bright)
Op amps AD825's on brown dogs (still too bright)
Trichord Clock4 on the DAC only
Seperate super reg for DAC (0v and unregulated feed taken from Q811 directly to super reg Output via 3300uf Elan to U203 with U200 removed.
With what I have done (op amps and clock from my old player) I expected excellent results but I'm surprisingly dissapointed. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ian
Re: Sound too bright!
Hi Ian,
Is the player really too bright, or do you like a warm sound? A standard 63 indeed sounds a lot warmer, but I would say it also colors the sound a lot (and even that is an understatement
). How long is it since these mods? I would give it at least a couple of weeks with these new components before making a serious judgement.
You can try some other opamps, because the ones you chose happen to be the brightest ones I can think of
. Maybe Burr Brown's OPA2134 or OPA627? They sound warmer.
Oh, and don't forget to take out the muting transistors...
Regards,
Ray
UV101 said:
Hi Ian,
Is the player really too bright, or do you like a warm sound? A standard 63 indeed sounds a lot warmer, but I would say it also colors the sound a lot (and even that is an understatement
). How long is it since these mods? I would give it at least a couple of weeks with these new components before making a serious judgement.You can try some other opamps, because the ones you chose happen to be the brightest ones I can think of
. Maybe Burr Brown's OPA2134 or OPA627? They sound warmer.Oh, and don't forget to take out the muting transistors...
Regards,
Ray
Happy New Year!!! Hope you all had a great festive break.
Is that the Ian that bought the ZA's from me?
Just a thought, but you could also try the AD827 opamps. These are much warmer sounding than the LM4562's, but weren't quite as detailed.
Black Gate STD may sound a touch warmer too, with similar detail to the ZA's.
Also, Elna Silmic caps will trade some detail for warmth too. Have you replaced CD15,16 yet? I've found fitting Elna Silmic or Cerafine caps here helps to warm the sound too.
Cheers, Lee.
edit: replacing the elco's on the digital rails can really smooth the sound too. I personally prefer Rubycon ZA's or Sanyo OScons.
Is that the Ian that bought the ZA's from me?
Just a thought, but you could also try the AD827 opamps. These are much warmer sounding than the LM4562's, but weren't quite as detailed.
Black Gate STD may sound a touch warmer too, with similar detail to the ZA's.
Also, Elna Silmic caps will trade some detail for warmth too. Have you replaced CD15,16 yet? I've found fitting Elna Silmic or Cerafine caps here helps to warm the sound too.
Cheers, Lee.
edit: replacing the elco's on the digital rails can really smooth the sound too. I personally prefer Rubycon ZA's or Sanyo OScons.
Happy New Year folks.
Ian:
It could be the ZAs, but what you're describing doesn't surprise me. Once you remove a few veils, this is what often happens. Especially as removing the HDAM removes a bit of mid-bass warmth (some may say 'bloat').
Check out the filter mods though on Ray's (65HC) page, link is in his signature. The Bessel filter mod would probably be just the ticket.
Also, I tried every op-amp combo imaginable. If you're OK with SOIC op-amps and Brown Dog adaptors, I have a couple of recommendations. The chip on top needs to be very fast - this is the first stage of the filter and balanced to unbalanced conversion. The chip on the bottom (2nd stage of filter) seems to define the bass more than anything.
LM6171 (top), OPA627 (bottom):
Very good. Warm and sweet. Big image and body to vocals. Bass can be little bloated (OPA627 does this). Not the last word in detail but musical.
AD8065 (top), AD8610 (bottom):
Excellent. I tried 2xAD8065 and it was supremely detailed yet smooth, with clear crisp highs. Bass was deep and tight. Lacked a bit of mid-bass punch. I tried 2xAD8610 and it was very punchy and dynamic but a little unruly at the top. Great imaging. I was hoping to combine the best of each by using both, and it worked like a charm. It sounds liket 2xAD8065 but punchier and a bit more mid-bass drive. Brighter than LM6171+OPA627 though.
I have a CD-67SE with an LC-Audio Zapfilter output stage and a Tent Labs XO2 with XO supply.
I also have a backup CD-63 with Martin Clark's clock hack, regulated servos, still using op-amps, and HDAM.
I now prefer the latter with the AD8065/AD8610 combination!
Note that they both have separate regulators for every DAC power pin, but only LM317s.
But CDs are now a thing of the past, thanks to.... (drum roll....)
Ian:
It could be the ZAs, but what you're describing doesn't surprise me. Once you remove a few veils, this is what often happens. Especially as removing the HDAM removes a bit of mid-bass warmth (some may say 'bloat').
Check out the filter mods though on Ray's (65HC) page, link is in his signature. The Bessel filter mod would probably be just the ticket.
Also, I tried every op-amp combo imaginable. If you're OK with SOIC op-amps and Brown Dog adaptors, I have a couple of recommendations. The chip on top needs to be very fast - this is the first stage of the filter and balanced to unbalanced conversion. The chip on the bottom (2nd stage of filter) seems to define the bass more than anything.
LM6171 (top), OPA627 (bottom):
Very good. Warm and sweet. Big image and body to vocals. Bass can be little bloated (OPA627 does this). Not the last word in detail but musical.
AD8065 (top), AD8610 (bottom):
Excellent. I tried 2xAD8065 and it was supremely detailed yet smooth, with clear crisp highs. Bass was deep and tight. Lacked a bit of mid-bass punch. I tried 2xAD8610 and it was very punchy and dynamic but a little unruly at the top. Great imaging. I was hoping to combine the best of each by using both, and it worked like a charm. It sounds liket 2xAD8065 but punchier and a bit more mid-bass drive. Brighter than LM6171+OPA627 though.
I have a CD-67SE with an LC-Audio Zapfilter output stage and a Tent Labs XO2 with XO supply.
I also have a backup CD-63 with Martin Clark's clock hack, regulated servos, still using op-amps, and HDAM.
I now prefer the latter with the AD8065/AD8610 combination!
Note that they both have separate regulators for every DAC power pin, but only LM317s.
But CDs are now a thing of the past, thanks to.... (drum roll....)
Attachments
Link to Ray's info about the Bessel mod is http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/ra.vdsteen/cd67ose_mods_en.html
Scroll to the bottom where is says 'Analog Filter'.
(To cut a long story short, you simply replace the 1000pF cap between the two op-amp stages with 470pF. In the CD67 there is no inductor.)
Scroll to the bottom where is says 'Analog Filter'.
(To cut a long story short, you simply replace the 1000pF cap between the two op-amp stages with 470pF. In the CD67 there is no inductor.)
Hi Lee,
Happy new year!
Yep its me!
I'll see what I've got here and try what you've said. Do you know where I can get BG's? What should I change CD15&16 for?
You might be interested, I've got a source for genuine phillips lasers now! Got the first 4 just before xmas.
I'm off to a mates this evening to put a my 63 and modded 67 against his 63KI should be fun!
Questions questions and more questions!!!!
You know I'll be in touch!!!!
Thanks
Ian
Happy new year!
Yep its me!
I'll see what I've got here and try what you've said. Do you know where I can get BG's? What should I change CD15&16 for?
You might be interested, I've got a source for genuine phillips lasers now! Got the first 4 just before xmas.
I'm off to a mates this evening to put a my 63 and modded 67 against his 63KI should be fun!
Questions questions and more questions!!!!
You know I'll be in touch!!!!
Thanks
Ian
Glenn2 said:
Happy New year to All.
Hi Glenn
Would you please explain the phrase ?
Do you mean you get better sound from the internet ?
What type of files are you reading ?
Note:
I will keep improving my CDP and TT even if a better transcription methot appears, but I am always open to new "better" ideas.
Regards
Ricardo
These players do tend towards brightness when you bypass the HDAM without improving the whole player sufficiently. My player (very modified) never really lost the brightness completely (inherent to the DAC/chipset perhaps?) so I've moved to an older player that has a warmer sound (my preference). With that said, using good caps in all the right spots, new clock (clockS in CD63), and much tidied up power rails it doesn't sound overbright at all, just sharp and clean.
Simon
Simon
wow guys! that's a lot to take in!
I definitely need to give it a chance, I only did everything yesterday. it does however sound like the general opinion is that what i've done will be too bright for me! I'll look into the op amp combo's suggested. i'll properly digest and let you know what I do next.
Thanks again chaps
I definitely need to give it a chance, I only did everything yesterday. it does however sound like the general opinion is that what i've done will be too bright for me! I'll look into the op amp combo's suggested. i'll properly digest and let you know what I do next.
Thanks again chaps
Hi Ricardo,
I decided a while ago that a hard-drive based solution was what I wanted. I know that with the right equipment some of these solutions can scale dizzy heights, but I thought I'd start at the bottom.
I ripped all of my CDs as lossless FLAC files, using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) in secure mode, offsets corrected, using my PCs Plextor drive. This means I'm guaranteed to have bit-perfect files. I wanted to do this anyway, so that I could keep a copy somewhere else in case of fire, robbery, etc., I wouldn't lose all my music.
I then bought the Logitech Squeezebox Classic (£150) - this is the SlimDevices Squeezebox 3 rebadged as Logitech bought SlimDevices.
This connects to my PC over my wireless network. The PC is running server software called SqueezeCenter in the background.
You can instead run it on a NAS drive which you leave on permanently, if you don't want to have to switch your PC on to listen to your music. I don't mind as my PC is in my bedroom so can't be heard in my living room, and it's hard-wired to my router so I can use Wake-On-Lan (WOL) to boot the machine from my listening position and a plug-in to shut it down again (I haven't tried that yet).
The Squeezebox itself is the interface, it talks to the server which streams your FLACs to it. Its own audio output is quite good (uses a Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC, PCM1748) but is a bit sharp and thin straight out of the box. I replaced the switching power supply with a transformer-based one and things improved, it got much smoother. Many (most?) would be happy with this sound alone.
I chose to feed the coaxial S/PDIF output to the Cambridge Audio DacMagic. This upsamples to 24-bit/192kHz and has twin Wolfson WM8740 DACs in dual-differential mode (used in CA 640C/740C, Rega Apollo/Saturn, some Arcam machines). It also has different digital filter settings, selectable via a front-panel switch. The manual even shows ferquency and impulse response plots of what they do!
Most seem to prefer the 'linear phase' setting, but I think I'm leaning towards the 'minimum' setting, which trades some phase error for no pre-ringing in the impulse response, for what it's worth. Linear seems crystal clear but perhaps a bit clinical. Minimum trades a little precision for a bit of warmth and ambience. It's nice to have these settings as - contrary to some claims - there IS a difference, and maybe some music sounds better on one particular setting. There is also a 'steep' filter which sounds a bit softer to me but could sweeten up low-bitrate signals. If you hold the filter button in, it inverts absolute phase too. Not sure if I can tell the difference on that one yet.
The wall-wart is just a transformer (12V AC) - the rectification, smoothing and regulation all happen inside the DAC case. There are balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs.
It all sounds very nice but I don't want to post any conclusions yet - it's all still burning in.
Still don't want to take this thread too far off-topic for the hundredth time!
I decided a while ago that a hard-drive based solution was what I wanted. I know that with the right equipment some of these solutions can scale dizzy heights, but I thought I'd start at the bottom.
I ripped all of my CDs as lossless FLAC files, using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) in secure mode, offsets corrected, using my PCs Plextor drive. This means I'm guaranteed to have bit-perfect files. I wanted to do this anyway, so that I could keep a copy somewhere else in case of fire, robbery, etc., I wouldn't lose all my music.
I then bought the Logitech Squeezebox Classic (£150) - this is the SlimDevices Squeezebox 3 rebadged as Logitech bought SlimDevices.
This connects to my PC over my wireless network. The PC is running server software called SqueezeCenter in the background.
You can instead run it on a NAS drive which you leave on permanently, if you don't want to have to switch your PC on to listen to your music. I don't mind as my PC is in my bedroom so can't be heard in my living room, and it's hard-wired to my router so I can use Wake-On-Lan (WOL) to boot the machine from my listening position and a plug-in to shut it down again (I haven't tried that yet).
The Squeezebox itself is the interface, it talks to the server which streams your FLACs to it. Its own audio output is quite good (uses a Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC, PCM1748) but is a bit sharp and thin straight out of the box. I replaced the switching power supply with a transformer-based one and things improved, it got much smoother. Many (most?) would be happy with this sound alone.
I chose to feed the coaxial S/PDIF output to the Cambridge Audio DacMagic. This upsamples to 24-bit/192kHz and has twin Wolfson WM8740 DACs in dual-differential mode (used in CA 640C/740C, Rega Apollo/Saturn, some Arcam machines). It also has different digital filter settings, selectable via a front-panel switch. The manual even shows ferquency and impulse response plots of what they do!
Most seem to prefer the 'linear phase' setting, but I think I'm leaning towards the 'minimum' setting, which trades some phase error for no pre-ringing in the impulse response, for what it's worth. Linear seems crystal clear but perhaps a bit clinical. Minimum trades a little precision for a bit of warmth and ambience. It's nice to have these settings as - contrary to some claims - there IS a difference, and maybe some music sounds better on one particular setting. There is also a 'steep' filter which sounds a bit softer to me but could sweeten up low-bitrate signals. If you hold the filter button in, it inverts absolute phase too. Not sure if I can tell the difference on that one yet.
The wall-wart is just a transformer (12V AC) - the rectification, smoothing and regulation all happen inside the DAC case. There are balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs.
It all sounds very nice but I don't want to post any conclusions yet - it's all still burning in.
Still don't want to take this thread too far off-topic for the hundredth time!