[patricksalter]

For years now, I've been considering this cd player upgrade project, and thought I might get some feedback from you guys. 

http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/tweaks-for-geeks/0

Considering I can get either of theses cd players on ebay for less than $100, and spend $100 on the upgrade costs, I thought I would see if anybody thinks they might have a better solution before I spent the time and money on this.  So, the question is...think you have a better cd player deal, that supports DVD-Audio and SACD for less than $200?  Please keep in mind, I just don't have it in the budget to spend thousands of dollars on a CD player/DAC combo right now.  Plus, I like the challenge of doing the upgrade.  I'm in a project type mood right now. 

I was also considering applying the upgrade idea to this player....
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=11038348&catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1

I know people are probably inclined to attack this player, as cd changers introduce all sorts of problems, but I thought it would be interesting to see just how good a 400 disk changer could really sound. 

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions or warnings would be appreciated. 


Patrick

[mgalusha]

That article was written by one of the AC regulars - BobM. Here is a long thread on this: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=12613.0

Perhaps Bob will see this and chime in.

mike

[etcarroll]

Well, just grabbed the Samsung version of this for upgrading. Seems there's a lot of Classical SACDs on the interwebs to be purchased.

Time to warm up the soldering iron. 

[jamesdb]

Have you considered using the cd player just as a transport and getting an external DAC or DAC kit from ebay? You may not want to upgrade the analog output stage of the CD player if you use it as as a transport and use the digital output only. There are some pretty good DAC kits available for reasonable cost.

[whanafi]

I know people are probably inclined to attack this player, as cd changers introduce all sorts of problems, but I thought it would be interesting to see just how good a 400 disk changer could really sound.

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions or warnings would be appreciated.


Patrick

I had a couple of the Sony changers for years, driven by a Nirvis interface to my PC.  All that worked fine, but when I decided to go digital and rip my CD collection, I found small scratches and rub marks on pretty much every CD (750). 

I would avoid the changers.

[etcarroll]

Have you considered using the cd player just as a transport and getting an external DAC or DAC kit from ebay? You may not want to upgrade the analog output stage of the CD player if you use it as as a transport and use the digital output only. There are some pretty good DAC kits available for reasonable cost.

I hear what you're saying James, but;

1) Got it for $33
2) Thinking of building a tubed pre eventually, thought this would be a good warm up as all I've soldered so far has been speaker xover upgrades,
3) I may still go a diy DAC but for a music server I built using Vortexbox.

[BobM]

Well I think all of the information you will need to upgrade the original player, or eve to buy a current player and give it a boost, is in the thread and article linked above. It's been a while since that was written and discussed, but the principles still hold true.

I do have to say though that there has also been a lot of progress in the digital domaine and the trickle down is very real. You can get better sound now in a cheap player than you could 5 years ago, but that doesn't mean it can't be made better still with a little tweaking. In either case you can't beat the price, or the experience of doing it yourself.

Good luck with your project,
Bob

[etcarroll]

BobM -

Did you change out the clock when you did this?