[Russtafarian]

I’ve been experimenting with the Oppo DV970 player, trying to get it to make some music.  It’s developed a hiccup and I wonder if anyone knows what might be causing it. 

Previously I had swapped out the electrolytic caps in the switching PS and main board with equivalent value Panasonic FC and FMs.  I used the player this way for a week and functionally everything worked just fine, though it didn’t give me the sonic improvement I had hoped for.

Last Friday a shipment of 10uf polypropylene caps showed up so I started dropping them into the circuit.  I bypassed each dc output from the switching supply (+3.3v, +5v, +/-9v) with a 10uf poly. I used two more 10uf polys as coupling caps between the L & R DAC output and two Lundahl coupling transformers.  Finally, I bypassed the 22uF 400v smoothing cap at the AC input of the PS with a 10uf poly.  The player sounds much better, but…

Once the player has been turned on for a while it has a hard time spinning up and reading a disc.  If the player is turned off for about 10 minutes and turned back on, it will spin up and read a disc without a problem.  Any idea what I might have done to cause this?  Next time I have a chance to work on it I’m going to disconnect the bypass cap on the +5v line to see if that’s what’s causing the problem.  Any other ideas as to what I might have done to cause this?  Thanks.

Russ

[ctviggen]

That's a hard problem, because it isn't easily repeatable.  My only recommendation is to undo something you've done, use the Oppo, and see if the problem reoccurs. If so, undo something else and repeat.  Once the problem no longer occurs, you know what the problem is and can add in everything (one at a time, playing the Oppo in between) that didn't cause the problem.

[Russtafarian]

That's what I intend to do when I get home tonight.  I was just hoping someone would read the symptoms and immediately know what was going on.  Thanks.

[Sonny]

Or, just leave the player on 24/7!

[gooberdude]

Hey Russ,

If you get the PS issue worked out, try a free tweak on the Oppo...another Oppo fan put this out on audioasylum...it works amazingly well on my sony cdp.

 
grab a 1/2" diameter refrigerator magnet, preferrably one with a hole in the middle.  Remove the cover of your cdp and locate the cd spindle.  measure its position, then place the magnet on that spot, on the chassis lid.

somehow this makes that cd spindle work better, increases the soundstage and smooooooths out the sound.

the guy who reported this had his Oppo modded somehwere, spent $1K or so.   after burning it in he tried the magnet trick and was blown away.

If this works for you, grab a 2nd and place it on the lid, right above the transformer.   the effect this creates is not as drastic as the spindle tweak, but the 2 together make a cheap player sound pretty wild.

i've had both on my cdp for a few weeks, no issues..only fun with CD's.

[Russtafarian]

Yes, I do leave the player on 24/7.  The disc reading problem first occurred after 24 hours of burning in the mods I did.

The player worked just fine last night when I tried to further diagnose the problem.  It's probably waiting for me to bolt the cover back on, put it back in the rack, and reconnect all the cables before it starts acting up again. 

I will try the magnet over the spindle tweak.  When not laid open for surgery, I've been putting an old VPI brick (remember those?) on top of the player with good results.

Russ

[Russtafarian]

I found the source of the disc reading problem last night.  There is a very thin ribbon cable that connects the laser mechanism to the main board.  I've probably disconnected/connected it from the main board five or six times in the process of doing my mods.  Apparently that was enough to corrupt the small contacts on the cable. 

Oppo is sending me another cable for no charge, after warning me that next time they'll probably have to charge me for the part.  The C/S guy I talked was very helpful and didn't seem at all surprised that I was modding the player. 

Russ