Marantz CD63 & CD67 mods list

brilliant - thanks!

I was in the process of pricing up some bits to make one - when the very kind Ray responded about the Flea kit and offered me one of his ready modified Power supply units - at least I know i won't be blowing up my cd player now... 🙂
 
OK so my first wave of mods has been done - LM6172 op amps fitted with gold plated sockets, PSU caps upgraded, and one of Ray's excellent DIY fleas with a separate PSU fitted in place of the standard clock.....results are impressive! so now i've decided to get my hands a bit dirtier...

From reading through Ray's mod lists, there are mentions on the decoder sections about a CRIN/CROUT mod applicable to the CD67 - from what i understand so far Marantz basically wired the clock signal from the DAC to CROUT instead of CRIN directly - and by lifting a resistor/capacitor i can correct the wiring of the clock. Now I am thinking of wiring the second feed from the flea (using coax) to it instead and just bypassing the feed from the DAC (obviously I guess that will mean cutting the track near the DAC to prevent aerial effects)....is this all there is to it - i take it the CROUT doesn't need a feed at all, or does that feed anything else? Also, do I need to fit a cap between the flea and the CRIN on the decoder and finally if i connect mini coax from the flea to the decoder, should i just connect the earth at the flea end (it is using an independent power supply, but the ground is already connected to the ground plane at the DAC)?

My other query is in regard to the mod lists - i've been consulting the three x7 related mod lists - the CD67OSE, CD57 and CD67MKii OSE and noticed that there are differences in the components - in particular electrolytics replacing standard non polar ceramics and dramatically different values for some other components. Whilst some can be discounted due to the differences between standard CD57 and CD67 models, some leave me a little confused which options i should plump for - the latest one (the CD57 in that case), or the one nearest my model (a CD67mkI SE), which also happens to be the earliest option?

Thanks in advance 🙂
 
Hi, I am just trying to mount the three toroidals for Higlanders mod and was wondering whether I can just mount them on the outside of the back of the chassis. They are not in plastic cases so would this be safe? It would certainly be a lot easier than building a little platform and squeezing them behind the transport. Thanks! Henry
 
They should really be inside the case for safety reasons. The plastic film on the outside is so easy to scratch off exposing the windings.

But isn't the primary winding underneath the secondary? In other words, one would have to penetrate through a layer of insulation, then secondary winding, then another layer of insulation to reach the 240V winding. Am I just being naive? Henry
 
I got the transformers slotted in and it sounds good. Next is Ray's DOS-CFP. Henry
 

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OK well i've taken the plunge after many nights poring over circuit diagrams and interrogating people (Thanks Ray, you are a lifesaver!)...and started modding my CD67SE. Power supply components have been upgraded, all diodes replaced with schottkys and bypass caps fitted to the new electrolytics together with a couple of new regulators. Replaced the LM6172 opamps with some LME49720HA cans with heatsinks on...resulted in a much better soundstage and more musical. Tonight i replaced some of the opamp and output components - removed the muting transistors, fitted inductors and upgraded to silmic II caps round the op-amps. I've left the HDAM circuit in place at the moment as I wanted to see how it sounds stage by stage! However, after removing the dual dc blocking caps on the output, i measured the DC offset - on pause, left is at around 24mv, right at 50mv....which sounds somewhat high! I'm measuring using a DVM in DC only mode, between the rca ground and each channel and tested numerous times!

This sounds like I need some DC blocking in place, or is this ok, or is it a result of having the HDAM circuit still in place? It's going into a Yamaha RTX-V775 AMP which is quite new so i suspect it will have DC blocking...
 
50mV is indeed a bit high, but don't worry about it now. Your amp will block it at the input. It will probably come down if you bypass the HDAM and insert the 0.1% resistors.

I wouldn't invest in any DC caps right now, if you're ever going to fit the DOS stage you need the best you can get! The £4 Mundorfs will do the job, but that's about it. I'm not overly impressed by their sound...