just made my most cost effective upgrade...

Well, I bought a pioneer PD-S703 stable platter cd player off ebay for £35 to use as a transport with my modded superdac. Quite well built and esay to use.

Its replacing an arcam alpha plus, and alpha 8. So far i think that the pioneer is a better transport than both of these. There is a very noticable improovement, genrally deeper but tighter bass, better imaging and lots more "thwack", thats very noticable when listeing to drumming. generally more tangible. Only malinge maybe is that the top end is a little brighter, although not unbearably so, and ive only notice this when cranked right up.

so all in all, im rather pleased, but have to get used to loading cd's upside down, doh!

Has anyone else had expierence of the pioneer stable platter models?

 

my dad has one and it sounds damn good through his modest system. hey if they're good enough for wadia....
cheers


julian.

 

I thought Wadia use TEAC.

 

At least one Wadia (the 302 I think?) uses the pioneer stable platter mech

 

I sit corrected and Angus has indeed got himself a bargain.

 

The 301 used the stable platter. It was replaced with the 302 using a philips VAM mech since pioneer discontinued the stable platter mech.

 

A mate of mine bought one of those stable platter Pioneer jobs many years ago (1993?). It was very heavy and well built and cost around £450+. We'd been demoing different players all day (smooth classic Rotel 965's, horrible Cyrus DAC5 etc.) then the dealer plugged this Pioneer in and stuck Rage against the Machine in it. We jumped back about 3 feet. Sold!

Took him a few days to get used to putting CDs in upside down though.

Always did think it would make a superb transport.

 

Are these the pioneer ones that are the size of a house? Chromey looking case and a top loader?

 

well here it is;


I tried to get an 802 or 901 whichh look remarkably similar, but i ended up with this as it came at the right price. I think they use the same etransport anyway.

 

Cor its an ugly beast isn't it! Looks like a bargain though!

 

Ahhh I think it was a 901 that my mate bought. Great machines, glad you are pleased with it.

 

I have an 801 which I bought new in the early nineties. For the last four years it has been stuck in the loft. I dragged it out 9 months ago whilst we had major building works whilst my 'proper gear' was put into storage. I was pleasantly surprised on how good it sounded. To be fair, it is trounced by my Avondale modded Arcam and my previous Genki, but I suspect it would give most modern sub £500 players a run for their money. Given how cheaply you can pick them up on ebay, usually under £40, this and the similar Pioneer players are a steal.

Rod

 

How do you think one of those would compare to a Cambride Audio Discmagic transport? I got the Discmagic because I ran out of dosh. It sounds fine to me but to be honest I can't tell much improvement between it and the DVD player I was using before hand as a transport.

I still have no money, but the stable platter stuff sounds like it would be good for a transport.

 

Angus..
What is the jitter spec for Pioneer PD-S703 ? SuperDAC is sensitive to this.

I also find that postioning Super DAC well away from amp or CDP helps rather than placing on top of them.
May be on top of something you are not using such as a tuner with some damping under the SuperDac such as squash balls cut in half.

 

The stable platter Pioneers are grossly underrated, as is the Sony fixed laser decks, both of which make excellent transports.

Both also have captive mains leads which is a major shame because both also benefit tremendously from an upgraded mains cord - trust me.

If you don;t like the idea of grubbing around in the internals then chop off the lead about 3 inches from the chassis and fit a male IEC connector then you can fit a better quality mains cord of your choice.

Sound quality takes a major leap forward again and you will be surprised at how much more information can be got from a humble inexpensive CDP like the Pioneer. I hae bought and sold quite a few now with wired in cords and upgraded them.

 

I wish I'd never traded in my PDS703 - I should have mated that with a Rega Io rather than getting the Planet, as that would have been the best "digital turntable" I could afford at the time.

Plus the Pioneer was almost silent in use, even with scratched CDs...

I'd not risk buying another one now 'cos of the age of the things, although I do still have a 1985 Technics that's still working...

 

i have no idea what the jitter spec is, no mention of it in the manual or on any internet site that i can find? im presuming/hoping that is lower jitter than what i was using before.

I might well try upgrading the mains cable, athough doesnt this mainly help the internal dac which i will be bypassing anyway. Presumably i can simply open her up and rewire the live and neatral as there is no earth, presumably because its double insulated/earthed already.

I probably ought to get a better power cable for the superdac's psu too, im currently using a genuine kettle lead acquired from student halls last year

 

Trichord did a couple of supper modded models using the Pioneer as the base machine, the Genesis and something else, they had a massive bass expansion and could when coupled up well produce really good sounds. link to review

They come on the second hand market for about £200 these days.

I'm a big fan of these

 

At 40 notes its not the end of the world if it breaks tho

 

Those captive maons leads are bad news. Whre possible I replace them by soldering a good mains cables direct to the PCB.

But the alternative suggested by Effem is easier to do.