[mgalusha]

Some people have a bad hair day, yesterday I had a bad audio day.

It started off well enough, a few of us gathered at Tyson's place to listen to Wayne's modded Panasonic SA-XR45. I brought along my DIY tube mono amps as Tyson wanted to try bi-amping his RM-40's with tubes driving the top. We didn't get to try them as we simply ran out of time while playing with the Panny. So far so good...

On the way home I had to lay on the brakes pretty hard for some ass who cut in front of me. I heard one of the amps move in the back but it didn't sound bad and I wasn't too worried about it. Upon arriving home I found one of the amps had flopped over onto the back panel. This wouldn't have been bad except one of the output tubes had been ejected from the amp. During it's exit the locating key broke off the base (octal tubes). Fortunately the tube didn't break and Antique Electronics sells an add-on locating key.

Pretty crappy but no real or expensive damage done, alas the day was not over yet...

After dinner my wife suggested a game of cards. Sounded good and of course one needs some music playing. Fired up the system (the tube mono's are not in this system) and hit play on the CD and a horrible, static filled sound issued from the speakers. WTF? Did the tubes in my preamp go bad all at once? Amps fried? CDP died? Swapped in another pair of tubes in the preamp and no difference, just crap coming from the speakers. I ruled out the preamp as the level of the noise changed with the volume setting.

Fired up the Cornet and dropped on some vinyl and was blessed with music. While it was great to know my amps were OK it really sucked to know my CDP had expired.    

My CDP is (was) a modded Philips SACD-1000 with a LCAudio ZAP-Filter output stage. I thought perhaps the output stage had died. Put it on the bench and connected the DAC output's back up to the original output stage and had the same results. The bastard is dead.    

I suppose I should look on the bright side and be happy it lasted for 1 1/2 years. Quite a few of the SACD 1000's didn't make it that long. Nah, there is no bright side.

OK, I'm done venting. If you read this far, thanks. The question now is do I rip out all the BlackGates and the nice 4 pole Jensen's and toss it in the rubbish can or put it up for sale as a non working piece with some premium parts in it. A loosing proposition either way.

I guess there is one good thing. I still have three other CDP's, so at least I have music.  

mike g

[zybar]

Mike,

Sorry to hear about that.

I can totally sympathize with you as I am waiting for parts on my RM 40's (blown TRT cap).

Nothing sucks more than spending all this money and not having a working system.

Hope you get things worked out quickly.

GW

[rkapadia@ROOP]

Mike,

You should really consider having that SACD-1000 fixed.  The transport mechanism itself is fantastic in quality.  Having lived with my repaired modWright unit for about a month now, I can finally justify the 7 months I had without the player.  It's so easy to forget the wait for the MACE2 chip availibility when I turn on the player and listen to music .

Regards,

Rupesh

[nature boy]

Mike,

Shitty luck.  Take a breather, sleep on it.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

A lot of folks seem to be having problems with their Philips SACD-1000.  If you decide to give it the heave ho, I would definitely strip out the parts.

Take care and have a drink.

Regards,

NB

[mgalusha]

Mike,
You should really consider having that SACD-1000 fixed.  The transport mechanism itself is fantastic in quality.  Having lived with my repaired modWright unit for about a month now, I can finally justify the 7 months I had without the player.  It's so easy to forget the wait for the MACE2 chip availibility when I turn on the player and listen to music .

Rupesh,

I may consider getting it repaired but from what I remember most failures involved the transport or it's control circuitry. My transport and associated circuitry seems to be working. It's putting a really nasty signal out of the DAC chip, so something has likely failed in that portion. I put it on the scope and the waveform is very nasty looking. A lot of high frequency energy (like in the MHz range) and a lot of square wave in the output - even after passing through the output stage and it's filters. Did ModWright do the repairs on your player?

Take care and have a drink.

NB

I did do that. Tyson poured me a sample of some nice Scotch. Of course that was before I knew the player died but still, it was  good Scotch.

mike g.

[zybar]

Speaking of scotch and audio gear that doesn't work...

I am drinking a little Johnny Walker Blue and listening to my 40's (minus a tweeter).  Not actually that bad for only having a single working tweeter.

I just put in the MiniMax preamp and it sounds very different from the AVA T7.  Much more tube like (with the pluses/minuses you would expect).  From my brief listening I think the MiniMax has some good potential, but the stock tubes are definitely a little rough and unrefined in their sound.

GW

[randytsuch]

Hi Mike
Bummer about you 1000, my 1000 is sitting in my garage right now.  Still thinking about trying to get it fixed, but have not decide yet.

You know, between the two of us, sound like we have one working 1000.

If your transport is really good, and the problem is in the DAC portion, seems like that should be pretty easy to fix.

Randy

[Wayne1]

Mike,

I feel for ya, buddy.

You might want to take a look at this site:

http://www.aplhifi.com/SACD1000fix.html

Alex has been able to repair and help many folks repair their SACD 1000

Good luck on the fix.

[DVV]

I may consider getting it repaired but from what I remember most failures involved the transport or it's control circuitry. My transport and associated circuitry seems to be working. It's putting a really nasty signal out of the DAC chip, so something has likely failed in that portion. I put it on the scope and the waveform is very nasty looking. A lot of high frequency energy (like in the MHz range) and a lot of square wave in the output - even after passing through the output stage and it's filters. Did ModWright do the repairs on your player?

Don't jump to conclusions, Mike. It could be a 10 cent resistor for all you know. Before you scrap it, at least have it looked over and get an assessment of repair costs. Here's hoping they work out at what you consider as small.

The problem is that your unit has a totally outstanding drive, and it would be a shame to just dump it under the influence of self-pity, a bad day and/or bad whiskey.

NB
I did do that. Tyson poured me a sample of some nice Scotch. Of course that was before I knew the player died but still, it was  good Scotch.
mike g.

So if the Scotch was good, why are you even thinking about giving up on that unit?

Although if it was Marbles' whiskey, you probably wouldn't still be thinking at all. Rob knows how to party!

Cheers,
DVV

[mgalusha]

Don't jump to conclusions, Mike. It could be a 10 cent resistor for all you know. Before you scrap it, at least have it looked over and get an assessment of repair costs. Here's hoping they work out at what you consider as small.

Cheers,
DVV

Dejan,

Thanks for the encouragement, I haven't given up. I was, however, a bit on the angry side the other night at the machine. I have tried two different output stages with the same result, so I am fairly certain the problem lies somewhere between the transport and the DAC chip. I am fortunate in that I have the service manual on CD and it includes a troubleshooting guide along with all the schematics. I also have a fair amout of test equipment and a pretty good knowledge of how to use it. So, I have hope of affecting a repair with minimal cost.

You might want to take a look at this site:

http://www.aplhifi.com/SACD1000fix.html

Thanks Wayne, I will read over his info and see if any of the problems he describes are present in my piece.

You know, between the two of us, sound like we have one working 1000.  

If your transport is really good, and the problem is in the DAC portion, seems like that should be pretty easy to fix.

I'm hoping so. It's still sitting on my bench, lurking, like some hideous monster waiting to be disembowled.   Perhaps not quite that bad, but it is looking defiant in it's stace.

I appreciate the good thoughts guys, with any luck it will live again.

Mike