THE STOCK UNIT
In stock form, this little $35 player sounded pretty good on CD. I had a hunch it could sound very good. I decided to remove the switching power supply board and connect an outboard linear power supply. No other mods, even though there are plenty of little electrolytic caps that could be replaced.
About the DVD2023, so far as I can tell, it's a discontinued model, but there are still some of these floating around eBay, both used and NIB (new-in-box). There are other inexpensive Memorex models that I guess would be suitable candidates?this just happens to be the one I chose.
Owner's Manual
http://www.memorex.com/downloads/manuals/MVD2023suffixA.pdfThe unit runs on +5VDC / +12VDC, which to me made it a better candidate for a power supply upgrade that one that runs on +15V / -15V / +12V simply because I figured fewer parts and simpler connectors.
POWER SUPPLY UPGRADE
As you can see from the photo, the player itself is small. 2-channel only, so less circuitry.
Owner's manual says 15W power consumption, so just be safe and based on more detailed current req?t specs from other players, I wanted power supply capability of at least 3A at 5V, and 1.5 A capability at 12V.
A buddy of mine built the power supply for me, and put it in a Dyna chassis. As you can see from the photo, it?s a hefty unit.
THE SIMPLE MODIFICATION WITHIN THE MVD2023
For the power connector, I used a 3-connector (+5, +12, Grnd) audio plug and jack not the most robust connection, but it works. I fastened the jack into the chassis with Gorilla Glue.
To connect the power from the input jack to the main circuit board (that's the only internal connection that need be made), I used the ribbon cable that originally connected to the unit's power supply board. Just cut the ribbon cable and solder the ends to the new input connector. The circuit board is labeled, so you can see what voltages go to what wires. (My apologies about the soldering job I did.)
A word of caution: This may seem obvious--Do not connect or disconnect the power supply when the power supply is powered on. Yup, I ruined a DVD player (but I had an extra.)
HOW DOES IT SOUND WITH THE OUTBOARD POWER SUPPLY?
I was surprised by how good this little player now sounds. Low noise, good dynamics, very natural sounding. I've had a good number mid to high end players, including SonyES, modded Oppos, transports+modded NOS DACs; and this sounds as good or better than all of them. Not the warmest sounding (not a NOS DAC sound), but to me the clearest and most natural sounding.
To give you another reference point I have a Sony NS999ES, which is pretty good player when used with a high-end power cord. I?d say that this little Memorex with this outboard power supply sounds better in every way.
Moving on to bigger leagues, another friend of mine lent me his Rega Saturn player (Beautiful player, BTW), so I got to listen to both units in the same system. The Rega transport is quieter than the MVD2023 transport. Soundwise, they?re surprisingly similar. Both super quiet. Maybe the Rega is a little warmer sounding, but not necessarily better. (Mostly a matter of preference, I think.) Dynamics are about the same.
MORE ABOUT THE POWER SUPPLYThe big deal here is the quality of the power supply. That?s a quiet, oversized, regulated power supply with lots of capacitance and bypass caps on the electrolytics. My friend who built it tells me that he could do even better if he included inductors. (Below I describe the results of using a good, but lesser power supply.)
WHAT ABOUT LISTENING TO THE REDBOOK LAYER ON HYBRID SACD?
This MVD2023 that I've described is a version A of the player (as indicated by the label on the bottom of the chassis). There was also a version B. It's a lot harder to find, but I do have one. Here are the differences:
--Version A has a quieter transport, but it doesn?t read the redbook layer of hybrid SACD. (Of course, neither version reads the SACD layer.)
--Version B does read the redbook layer on a hybrid disc. It's stereo only, but it sounds very good. In fact it sounds better than the SACD playback on my Sony.
SAME MOD, DIFFERENT POWER SUPPLY
I came across this power supply eBay for about $40 shipping included. Not in the same league as the one I described above, but definitely an upgrade from stock. After using the better power supply, it's tough to use this one.
My suggestion: If you want a ?giant killer? CD player, go for the better power supply.
SUMMARYRelatively simple mod. (Of course, there's a lot more to it if you built the power supply yourself.) Nice results!
Enjoy.
