Modified CD players

The Arcam can sound very nice...over the stock rather laid back sound. Its an intresting observation that many naimies have this cdp, and a lot have had the avondale mod. Though many still don't find the sound acceptable. In the same sense that I preffer Lp but can happily listen to cd. This is not meant as a critism, just an obsevation.

A couple of points on the liability thing.....I have £1 million public liability without lifting a fingure on my house insurance, which probably means most people have. The second thing was that as a member of the emergency services for twenty years, we were told that an first aider that has intervined and has acted with the best of intentions will not find themselves liable. This followed a case were a firstaider saved the life of an accident victim but lost a leg. They sued over the leg loss but were told that if the first aider had not acted they would have died. This case was from the mid 90's, so any of yopu legal eagles ourt there may be able to shed more light on it. It has also set up a legal presidance, which I understand means the case is used as an example, when other case of a similar nature are looked at. The teacher thing is a bit of a red herring according to my teacher friends...thought the union advice seems to be accurate, [not my words]. Generally speaking I would have thought most people would be grateful of first responder intervention, if it saved the life of a loved one.

 

You have obviously never actually spent much time on the site then.

 

Two points there, the AAA5 and 5+ are wonderful. I'm running one and it's the best affordable CD player I've come across. I wish I had enough to get his modded CD3. It does absolutely nothing wrong and is the most natural CD player I've heard, coherence and timing are strengths, and unlike most digital I've heard it doesn't leave my ears tired from treble hash. If you've got £400 (that's what you'll pay for one on PFM when they come up) you'll not regret it. It's perhaps the ideal player for a vinylista like myself who always notices CD's imperfections (or at least what I perceive them to be!) Recommended.

Secondly PFM isn't just about Naim. I was reading all about tube rolling the other week, and just like here there is a massive diversity of posters. If it does have a flavour it would be towards the ignoring the next new thing and seeking quality rather than a shiney box, but that's about it. It's not just about Naim. Their music room and off topic areas are brilliant. I'd go there just for them alone.

 

Im ok now at the moment

 

AAA5 on PFM if anyones interested. Nothing to do with me, but it's the same as I paid, and I didn't get the interconnect.
http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17380

 

I don't normally mod others gear...it can get expensive, but can tell you what to do.
If you can wield a soldering Iron and have a few basic tools...

I have a "How to Mod the A5" write up with refference to the following A6, A7 varients,also 7se,8se. This is writen by me, it will get you to close the performance of the aaa5. I don't go down the same route as les, but there are some similarities. I pay more attention to the disapation of vibration from within [and without] to that end I designed a vibration absorbing base for the unit. Obviously the signal areas are covered using my ic's. A lot of the ideas in the generic mods article [on this forum] can be applied to the A5 so take a look !

 

Main problem with the Arcam A5 is the small space inside the case so your limited, the TDA1541A deserves a nice discrete I/V, buffer stage instead of those cruddy op-amps.
With a few simple mods they can produce some nice sounds though

 

Just to add to the first aid issue, a critical point as I undersand it is that provided a first aider only acts within the limits of their training it is extremely unlikely that any court would find against them were a prosecution brought, and to date in the UK there has never been any first aider successfully prosecuted under these circumstances.

(For info. I've been involved in voluntary first aid cover and teaching, with two different organisations, for ~8 years).

 

I just picked up an Orelle CD100se on ebay for £60. It is 9 years old, and was considered to be a VG player in its day (RRP £650). It is based around a single crown tda1541a (worth the outlay for that alone), and sa7220 4x filter, with CD4 swing mechanism. The player is in great condition, and has not been used much.

This should make a very good machine for upgrading

What I hope to do is bypass the digital filter, and put an analog filter in the IV stage, convert the transport into a top loader with a Naim CDS puck, build a heavy duty off board power supply, and tweak the sound with Black Gate caps. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Dave

 

Martin C.....as stated I served for 20years and along with the rest of the crews provided first aid on a daily basis. Your premise is in correct...the overriding factor in law was the first responder "has the best intentions" not my quote. This is from our training notes regarding litigation. There has all ready been a case in law which has set the precident, to which other case are compared. It nowhere does it state " to the limit of your training" if that was the case no first aid could ever be given. Now if you have a dirrective from say a union that says they will not support you if you act as a first responder ....that of course is advice that you must consider. Some one mentioned Teaching unions......If a child of mine was not provided with the duty of care if they were injured, because the staff felt they had insufficient training, I'd be the first in the line to file a writ.

I agree with you that you need to act confidently and at least appearto know what your doing. There have been several cases where people have died as they wouldn't allow the first responder to touch them...for what ever reason. At best the training provided will be sufficient to cover the normal types of accidents, but in many case that I dealt with, our training only covered aspects of the injuries sustained by the victim. I could give you details but it would not be pleasent reading.

As an aside and a warning ....have you lot checked your smoke detectors ? a smoke detector with out a battery is not a smoke detector !

Of all the people I dragged from house fires....those that were unconcious remained dead even with resucitation and defib. Over twenty years I personnally rescued in the order of 45 people of which 12 were dead or DOA. So don't become a statistic !

 

I wouldn't change the mechanism. I think CDM4 and CDM9 are better than the CDM-PRO mechanisms.

 

Dcathro.......Black gates are a matter of taste, I have found them overated they take months to breakin. As an alternative the Elna silmics I &II's are very good strasight from the off. Don't forget to tweak the psu ....if its running the standard 1n400x rectifer diodes swap for 11DQ10's or higher. Bypass the res caps with decending values of 10% ie if you have 10000uf bypass with 100uf 10 uf 1uf. If your chopping the case about to make a top loader, the integrity of the case plays a part in the overal sound. You may need to brace the rest of the case. If your swapping opamps etc use good solid copper pin sockets, even dropping back the same opamp has often given a better performance [better contacts less solder who knows why ?]. Don't scimp on the sockets either !

 

Hi,

I won't. The CDM4 sounds great, but it has a number of things that can be improved. There are a lot of things that are free to vibrate, and the mechanically integrated puck is a shocker. By removing the tray, making the whole thing more rigid, and using a magnetic puck, there are big gains to be had.

Dave

 

Dave,

I would consider other caps than B/gates, always a backwards move when I've used them

 

Nice buy for 60 quid. Blackgates are an acquired taste, but do work well in some circumstances (coupling for example). The non polar ones are pretty good. Personally i always like the sound of Nichicon muse caps (KZ being the top of the line), very natural. Remember to pay decent attention to the decoupling of all chips. Dont forget that additional shielding of chips etc can also help.

 

Hi Zanash,

Black Gates can be amazing and can also be awful. In my experience, you have to experiment very carefully to find the right cap for each position, and sometimes it is not a BG. The different types all sound different, and seem to be suited to different applications.

When I first started using BG's, I found that they did not work as advertised. The response I got from the supplier was "they take months to break in - be patient". Sorry, but for me, a capacitor should work instantly.

I am afraid that I have never got on with Silmics - I have a big bag full of them in my cupboard . I prefer Stargets, and as a standard cap the nichicon GS.

The player already has high quality rectifier diodes. I plan to do this in several stages. First stage is to do the filter and IV mods, second stage is to convert the transport, third is to upgrade all the local decoupling, and the fourth is to move the thing to a bigger box and build a bigger more rugged external power supply.

I will experiment with bypasses, but often in the past, I have found most of them to sound worse. The little 0.1 50v BGNXHiQ does, however, seem to work for this.

Agreed, this is an area that does require great care. The current player has cross braces already, and the machine sounds better with the steel (magnetic) lid removed. However, any light getting in degrades it. A new lid made of black perspex will do the trick, but it will need to be rigidly fixed to the machine.

I have liked the op627's in the past. They have always sounded better soldered directly.


Thanks for your suggestions

Dave

 

I can understand this completely. They can change the sound radically, and usually for the worse. I have found that only a few of the caps work for me, and only in certain specific applications, and then only some of the time .

The other thing, is that BG's don't seem to like metal film resistors ( and esp Vishays ). Carbon films seem to be a natural partner for them.

The gains that they bring when you are patient and get it right, can be large.

Best Regards

Dave

 

Fair comments, I don't use Vishays either, Caddocks easily see off the 102's, though not cheap :-( again metal film, though the new tinfoil/film melf replacement smt's are rather good
Been Patient with b/g's for years, some psu mods yes thats about it.
Jensons or TFTS
Bypass, only one cap will do (V-caps), though space is a problem (isn't it always)
Yes analogue filter pays big dividends, as does ditcthing op-amps and going fully descrete. I don't have any opamps driving outputs at all in any of my modded players options for global/local feedback too
Current to Voltage converters are one way (wadia do this with the swift current I/C)
they are a few others.
good luck on your project Dave.

 

You can pick up some reall S/H bargains, as the market is flooded.

My own experience has been that only a few of the values in a couple of the ranges work, and only for a few applications.

The 0.1 50v BGNXHiQ, is a bit of a wonder cap that seems to work in many applications, and sounds better than any film to my ears.

Here are the ones I have liked:

Non Polars:

4700 @ 50v (black body used for analog supply)
1000 @ 50v (black body used for analog supply)
100 @ 160v (black body used for analog coupling, decoupling, bypass)
10 @ 50v (red body used for analog decoupling)
0.1 @ 50v (blue body used for almost any analog app)

I have not been able to get any of these to work with digital!

Polars

I have found that the FK range can work well for digital supply, but are not anything special on the analog side

I also like Nichicon's, esp the large Great Supply caps.

This is an area I have not experimented with. What difference does it make?

Regards

Dave

 

Ive found that it smooths the whole sound out a bit and can allow a bit more detail to be heard as a little hash is removed. Ive found that not only shielding the chips but also the longer pcb tracks (that can act as aerials) helps.