I have read about this cap but thought it was a work/ not work situation.
I upgraded my std to and A version and it worked so I didn't think the cap was required.
I'm off to add the 470 now!
I think I also need to read up on the DEM mod!
Tubee - is there a good reference for researching the this mod?
Did you put any SRegs in yet Simon?
I upgraded my std to and A version and it worked so I didn't think the cap was required.
I'm off to add the 470 now!
I think I also need to read up on the DEM mod!
Tubee - is there a good reference for researching the this mod?
Did you put any SRegs in yet Simon?
UV101 said:
You need to read the thread........right after you install that 470pF cap
I'd love to know if you hear any change.
I put a +5V Audiocom Super Reg on my C1 clock. I have a Sercal S-Power on the digital filter's +5V, and another Super Reg on the DAC's +5V. Three in there so far but two more to go in tomorrow: +-12V S Powers to feed the op-amps.
I've just wired up a wee psu for this. I don't know how it will fit, may have to be a bit bodgy to be honest.... till it moves over to the plywood sheet. Those diodes are 1A/100V schottky and the caps are Mundorf M-Lytic HC 15000uF / 25V. I found a little transformer for it - a toroid of I'd say ~30VA. This is all in preparation for those sexy discrete op-amps it'll get treated to later
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SimontY said:
You need to read the thread........right after you install that 470pF cap
Thought i'd check first. The Schema says its got 680p accross 16&17. I checked the board and its already there. Looks like I've already got the quick win!
I did however just fit the supreme 4.7uf output caps that arrived from Lee today, along with 4 new LME49710NA and I have to say there is absolutely no going back.
I've not yet robbed the SRegs from my 63 but I will.
I'll go back over this thread to see what I can pick up (save asking repeat questions) I did it last night but I fear the stella may have impeeded my ability to retain
p.s. I've taken to covering my chips and op amps in copper foil and grounding them. Seems sensible (so long as you don't cook the device). Not sure if it's made any difference cos I've got so much other stuff changing in there at the mo. Seeing as we are in the mood for pics!
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Glad the 470pF cap worked Simon (I have read that some manufacturers use 680pF as well)!
It should reduce distortion when crossing (if I recall) over the zero point, so essentially would lower the noise floor - as you seem to have detected.
I can't remember what type of cap I use its neither cheap nor expensive, probably the best type as its for an oscillator.
You haven't started a flamewar! I'm fairly indifferent to the whole cable and connectors thing. Although, I can appreciate why interconnects are important with things like passive preamps and valve kit, where capacitance could make a difference.
I normally, as a half hearted effort, use litz cable, from braiding cat5 for interconnects. My non diy friends do look at me weird, but I can't tell a huge difference between mine and theirs (although I'm typically more interested in other differences). Mind you, for them, I do it for the whole annoying catweazel-ly hermit style hifi that cost next to nothing that embarasses their far more expensive kit.
I want to use shielded, especially for the current output of the DAC to the IV stage, to try and protect it from stray interference from the clock, digital filter and DAC stages. It seems like sensible practice, and would look tidier.
Anyway, with new cabling and caps I'm obviously willing to try them and see what happens.
I used speakons a bit, and I quite like them. I'm really practically minded - and not into cable aren't I? LOL
It should reduce distortion when crossing (if I recall) over the zero point, so essentially would lower the noise floor - as you seem to have detected.
I can't remember what type of cap I use its neither cheap nor expensive, probably the best type as its for an oscillator.
You haven't started a flamewar! I'm fairly indifferent to the whole cable and connectors thing. Although, I can appreciate why interconnects are important with things like passive preamps and valve kit, where capacitance could make a difference.
I normally, as a half hearted effort, use litz cable, from braiding cat5 for interconnects. My non diy friends do look at me weird, but I can't tell a huge difference between mine and theirs (although I'm typically more interested in other differences). Mind you, for them, I do it for the whole annoying catweazel-ly hermit style hifi that cost next to nothing that embarasses their far more expensive kit
. I want to use shielded, especially for the current output of the DAC to the IV stage, to try and protect it from stray interference from the clock, digital filter and DAC stages. It seems like sensible practice, and would look tidier.
Anyway, with new cabling and caps I'm obviously willing to try them and see what happens.
I used speakons a bit, and I quite like them. I'm really practically minded - and not into cable aren't I? LOL
Howdy Simon,
Here you are...you know you want to...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Marantz-...286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:10|39:1|240:1318
You're inspiring me to think of modding my Marantz CD50SE...
Cheers
Stuey
Here you are...you know you want to...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Marantz-...286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:10|39:1|240:1318
You're inspiring me to think of modding my Marantz CD50SE...
Cheers
Stuey
UV101 said:
I'm not entirely surprised, the TDA1541 players are rather nice on the ears.
philpoole said:I do it for the whole annoying catweazel-ly hermit style hifi that cost next to nothing that embarasses their far more expensive kit
That makes me smile
An A-B demo of some copper foil interconnects with good plugs vs something not so good ought to spark a bit of "cable religion" in your mind... but there are, of course, more important things to worry about. Just in case you're wondering I've done a couple of blind tests with interconnects and when the difference is big I can easily pick the nicer one. The trouble is most people that try this are trying it with mediocre wires and it's really hard to tell - so they assume there's no difference. Anyway, moving on....!
Stuey said:Here you are...you know you want to...
Stuey, yes I do want to. But it's probably not worth it until every important voltage rail is on its own dedicated, low noise power supply. Why? Because that costs £40 or so a time to do and gives huge gains and the double crown costs more and probably won't give as big gains. Plus I'd probably break it. Icing on the cake for later
Simon
I've just finished my output stage power supply upgrade - it took me a good few hours, it was tough and fiddly. After blowing a plug fuse and the internal fuse (one by soldering a transformer in when the unit was plugged in - oops, the other by a mysterious short on the +15V output, where it meets the left channel op-amp - still not sure why). Anyway, that didn't damage anything as the 200mA fuse was obviously very eager to blow. I've dropped a 600mA one in there as that's all I could find. I think given the two additional power supplies it's not a stupidly over-rated fuse, but I'll swap it for smaller later (need to make an order for some).
And here's my safety tip for the day: don't install transformers when the unit's plugged in, because with a figure of 8 plug, either wire could be live and therefore not necessarily switched out of circuit by the main switch. Thankfully I didn't get a shock, just a firework when the soldering iron touched the power wire... and a charred finger
Anyway, it probably sounds worse than it is - but it's a warning to keen modders. You must always take extra care and don't work on plugged-in equipment.
Furthermore it makes me think our consumer unit could use some upgrades (to MCBs) as nothing blew except the 3A fuse in the mains lead... I digress, back to the mods now, just having a nice little listen to some JJ Cale & Eric Clapton.
Simon
And here's my safety tip for the day: don't install transformers when the unit's plugged in, because with a figure of 8 plug, either wire could be live and therefore not necessarily switched out of circuit by the main switch. Thankfully I didn't get a shock, just a firework when the soldering iron touched the power wire... and a charred finger
Anyway, it probably sounds worse than it is - but it's a warning to keen modders. You must always take extra care and don't work on plugged-in equipment.
Furthermore it makes me think our consumer unit could use some upgrades (to MCBs) as nothing blew except the 3A fuse in the mains lead... I digress, back to the mods now, just having a nice little listen to some JJ Cale & Eric Clapton.
Simon
This is sounding rather nice. A very big upgrade, if a bit less than the HUGE one I expected. The LM4562 aren't exactly sensitive to supply noise, after all.
I'm hearing a more open sound, with more genuine detail retrieval, cleaner treble, firmer and deeper bass and bigger dynamics. A few subtler instruments have been brought to the fore, which is always a nice thing to have happen. The low-level spatial cues / decays (which were aided by the 470pF cap) are much more audible, which gives the player a more 3D feel.
Certainly some of the weak areas of the player are much improved by this PSU upgrade. I think the 47ohm resistors in series with the +-15V rails were not helping! The original -15V rail is (I think) dedicated to just the DAC now. I should short out that local psu resistor really, though I think it's just 4.7R...
Simon
I'm hearing a more open sound, with more genuine detail retrieval, cleaner treble, firmer and deeper bass and bigger dynamics. A few subtler instruments have been brought to the fore, which is always a nice thing to have happen. The low-level spatial cues / decays (which were aided by the 470pF cap) are much more audible, which gives the player a more 3D feel.
Certainly some of the weak areas of the player are much improved by this PSU upgrade. I think the 47ohm resistors in series with the +-15V rails were not helping! The original -15V rail is (I think) dedicated to just the DAC now. I should short out that local psu resistor really, though I think it's just 4.7R...
Simon
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Here's a more distant shot. You can see I've now sadly used up all the available space for extra transformers etc. I'd say the player's quite modified now and nearing excellence. It isn't there yet though. I might take it to Sercal tomorrow to see how much it's closed the gap on the modified CD17KI...
Simon
Simon
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Hehe, well it's hard to say compared to the CD63 because that was decomissioned a while ago. But I have a good memory of how it sounded when it was with me. It was still clearer and more precise in the frequency extremes. It had more detail, but presented it in a rather impersonal way. The detail/transparency gap is closing fast, though, and I think with S-Powers all round on the DAC, Burson discrete op-amps and some DEM reclocking it will be leagues ahead of where it is now... and automatically leagues ahead of my old CD63KI - which was treated to two clocks, something like 6 low noise regulators, and a lovely discrete output stage.
Well this has 5 nice regs now and will in the next couple of months get those Bursons, so that will be the time to compare one player to the other. As it is, this one isn't quite as "treated".
I've not heard the CD17KI at home but I can say for certain it's loads more detailed, with deeper bass and a better tonal palette and hugely more enveloping sound-staging. Not many CD63s come close in ANY respect, and at the same time it manages to have tone and bass, the likes of which only really Brent's CD63 does (and I'm not sure his really has the lovely tone I crave).
Very hard to say what the best mod was, but it could be the 5V Super Regulator on the DAC. The 5V reg and PSU on the digital filter was also immensely important.
Probably the most important mod for making the sound fully musical and sweet has been the silver-over-pure copper RCA jacks in combination with Mundorf Supreme output caps. You just don't get that silky sweet warm sound easily without good passive parts... but perhaps it would be an eye-opener to hear your DAC with purely good industrial parts - at this stage I don't know. I do *think* good parts vs good design & layout affect the sound in very different ways, the former in the sweetness and tone perhaps most and the latter in detail retrieval and soundstaging etc.
Simon
Well this has 5 nice regs now and will in the next couple of months get those Bursons, so that will be the time to compare one player to the other. As it is, this one isn't quite as "treated".
I've not heard the CD17KI at home but I can say for certain it's loads more detailed, with deeper bass and a better tonal palette and hugely more enveloping sound-staging. Not many CD63s come close in ANY respect, and at the same time it manages to have tone and bass, the likes of which only really Brent's CD63 does (and I'm not sure his really has the lovely tone I crave).
Very hard to say what the best mod was, but it could be the 5V Super Regulator on the DAC. The 5V reg and PSU on the digital filter was also immensely important.
Probably the most important mod for making the sound fully musical and sweet has been the silver-over-pure copper RCA jacks in combination with Mundorf Supreme output caps. You just don't get that silky sweet warm sound easily without good passive parts... but perhaps it would be an eye-opener to hear your DAC with purely good industrial parts - at this stage I don't know. I do *think* good parts vs good design & layout affect the sound in very different ways, the former in the sweetness and tone perhaps most and the latter in detail retrieval and soundstaging etc.
Simon
Nice work Simon.
I've still not got the 5v regs out of the 63! But I hope to later.
The 960's got discrete regs for the op amps as standard allbeit they wont be anywhere near as good as Brents regs. Just means i'll do that a bit later.
I'd seen that S2 late last night but wanted to try to ensure it was genuine. Funnily enough, Lee emailed me this morning and said it looks identical so I went for it!
Like you say more to do elsewhere first but they dont come up that often so I couldnt resist
I've been looking at the threads relating to DEM reclocking. Does anyone have a board etched? All i've found so far is old links. It would be nice to have a decent board rather than veroboard.
Ian
I've still not got the 5v regs out of the 63! But I hope to later.
The 960's got discrete regs for the op amps as standard allbeit they wont be anywhere near as good as Brents regs. Just means i'll do that a bit later.
I'd seen that S2 late last night but wanted to try to ensure it was genuine. Funnily enough, Lee emailed me this morning and said it looks identical so I went for it!
Like you say more to do elsewhere first but they dont come up that often so I couldnt resist
I've been looking at the threads relating to DEM reclocking. Does anyone have a board etched? All i've found so far is old links. It would be nice to have a decent board rather than veroboard.
Ian
Thanks for the comments.
I think you'll enjoy your new DAC chip. I wish I could afford it, but even if I could it'd be ~£100 better spent on a set of Bursons, which lift the sound of my player HUGELY (we tried at Sercal).
Maybe I'll source one later!
If you find a DEM reclocking PCB I want one too
Simon
I think you'll enjoy your new DAC chip. I wish I could afford it, but even if I could it'd be ~£100 better spent on a set of Bursons, which lift the sound of my player HUGELY (we tried at Sercal).
Maybe I'll source one later!
If you find a DEM reclocking PCB I want one too
Simon
UV101 said:Cool,
Just thought I'd offer just in case!
If Lee's not tried the DEM on his 94, maybe he'd like to and etch us a couple of boards when he makes his own???
(thanks!)
Yes, he MUST do this!!! He's busy rebuilding his '94 with all new transformers right now. I wonder what happened to the original transformer...!
Simon