[shep]

France calling. I finally reached the guy who is selling his. I'm second in line. Bit of an impulse buy. Can't hurt to have a second player. I would be very appreciative of anyone's experience with this machine, especially issues of tube rolling and any mods. As I read it, production stopped after two years and at the time they were not concerned with tube differences, opamps, cas. etc. I suspect it is faily easy to take this player to another level. Any experience or thoughts would make my day. I asked if they couldn't do this at their plant, since they are still making amps and things, they have both the skill and the parts available and it would save me a lot of hassle. Thanks

[markC]

Sylvania 3 mica blackplate 5751 tubes are a very nice tube for this player to my ears.
Opamp swap makes a huge difference as well. Can't remember which ones I used off hand.
Be Very carefull if you are going to mod this player. The circuit board is not of great quality and it's very easy to loose the through hole solder pads. I know first hand for sure.
Mine finally died on me-appears to be a failed chip which is no longer available. Too bad-I really liked the player.

[shep]

Thanks markC. Not nice to hear that the machine died! gives me pause for thought...by chip you mean?
I assume the better opamps are either the BB opa627 or another.

[markC]

By chip I mean an IC that controls the operation of the unit.
I didn't try the opa627, but the opa2604 oscilatted. I actually preferred the Analouge Devices op-amp. I believe it was the ad826an. If your going to use the opa627, you'll need 4 of them and 2 brown dog adapters as the 627's are single amps and the ne5532's that they will replace are doubles.

[shep]

Thanks. I realize this. There are "stereo" versions of this that are cheaper and almost as good. I haveto find the reference again. I wish there were more replies. Maybe you got a bad one or maybe this is endemic, in which case it's a bad buy.