Gallery of Tweaked CD players TO INDEX
So far I have extensively tweaked one CDP, my Pioneer PD-S904, one SACD Player, Sony SCD-XE960B, and a DVD Player, Pioneer DV655A. The details of the tweaking of my 904 is at the Projects & Tweaks.
I can tweak you CD player, please contact me if you are interested.
What I did in the tweaking of the players are quite simple. That is better parts, ICs or Caps, and increasing the capacitance of power supply electrolytic capacitors, bypass the electrolytic with film or ceramics cap. The usual problem with tweaking is actually how to squeeze in the better parts in to the heavily populated PCB board.
This player had some modifications done when the owner passed it to me. The RCA sockets were replaced with better stuff, IEC socket installed and a thick power cable was soldered from the IEC socket to the switch.
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The chassis of the player was first reinforced with bitumen padding, I only put them on the bottom plate of the player. I do not like its effect on the sound when placed on the top plate. |
The electrolytic capacitors used in power supply of this player is quite difficult to source, let alone the better quality ones with higher capacitance or higher voltage rating that have to fit into the circuit board. I sourced some Nichicon Muse FX series from US to be used. They were bypassed ERO film caps.
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Decoupling caps in the digital section of the DAC board are changed to Sanyo SA 470uF 16V. They are each further bypassed with a pair of 0.1uF/50V & 1uF16V X7R SMD ceramic caps. Copper foil are used to shield the DACs.
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Electrolytic caps were used in the filter circuit. I bypassed the two for the main channels with 0.22uF 63V - Polystyrene Film and Foil Capacitors, the rest with Wima mks4. I would love to used better stuff here, but the spacing is very tight and there is limitation on the height clearance. It can be seen from the picture that I had to put the caps flat to PCB and their leads bended to be soldered to the electrolytic caps. |
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The stock opamps were from JRC, I replaced them to the OPA2132. I like this improvement a lot. |
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Top View of the player after the modification. |
The basic stuff applied here; bitumen padding, opamps swapping, better quality caps in the filter circuit. I installed IEC socket and replaced the RCA sockets (12 pieces!!!), Sim Lim stuff but better quality & non magnetic.
The main limitation with this player is that there is another video board above DAC board, and the clearance between them is about 11mm or less. So selection of parts is very difficult. Nevertheless, I managed to squeeze in some Nichicon FX or FG caps in, but they have to be installed laying flat. Some Sanyo Oscon caps were used to parallel the stocked electrolytic caps. Bypassing were done with combo of 0.1uF/50V & 1uF16V X7R SMD ceramic caps. Output coupling caps are again electrolytic caps, and were replaced to Nichicon FG and bypassed with Wima MKS4 01uF 100V.
Switched mode power supply is used in this player, I did not and dare not touch it.
One thing I dislike about the design of this player is the power supply, there is only one +12V supply which is connected to the motor controller/driver, the opamps, regulate to 5V for the DACs, and regulate to 8V. The supply for the opamps are +12V only, no -12V.
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As ACME labs cryo-treated silver plated IEC socket is used, I did not solder directly on to it, instead a pair of lugs was used. Wires used here are all silver wire, inclusive of the two connecting the IEC socket. |
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Top view of the mod player with its top cover off. |