[hairofthedawg]

Smart ass!  

Just for that I'm going to go listen to it now!

Always welcome...

cheers,

Dick

[DVV]

I just took a look at DAWGs SL CD player and was surprised to see what looked like 6 large (the blue ones) capacitors.

Those look like what you might find in an amplifier!  I'm wondering why the need to smooth the electric draw for a CDP?

Also it seems to have the most populated PCB's of any CDP I've ever seen.

Anyone (DVV, Hugh, Dan B, Audioengr etc..) want to comment?

Nice, tidy work - I respect that, it shows pride in your work.

As for density, I'll dig up a photo of my Yamaha, that boy is also well populated.

Regarding smoothing, Marbles, you cannot ever have enough of it. Believe me, it can always be better. Those big blue milk bottles are indeed high capacitance units, probably big enough in capacitance to power a power amp, but probably lacking in voltage to do so in any great power. They are testimony to the fact that the designer wanted to have some really clean power inside - and lots of it.

Can't say I blame him.

Cheers,
DVV

[tmd]

How about someone give us the path from data being collected at the pickup all the way to the RCAs on the back of a CD player, like Dejan did for the Amp thread. Dejan, you up for it?
Thanks, Neil.

[hairofthedawg]

I haven't looked inside the external power unit yet, but why would he put such clean power inside a box that has an external supply?  I know I paid a lot for it, even with the discount, but is this a case of overdoing it?  The external isn't tall enough, unless they are mounted sideways, to contain anything even close to the size of those caps.  Herr Gemein does recommend standing the PS on its side though, at least if mein Deutsch is  sufficient still to read it.   It does sound fantastic, at least to me!!

cheers,

Dick

[randytsuch]

I haven't looked inside the external power unit yet, but why would he put such clean power inside a box that has an external supply?  I know I paid a lot for it, even with the discount, but is this a case of overdoing it?  The external isn't tall enough, unless they are mounted sideways, to contain anything even close to the size of those caps.  Herr Gemein does recommend standing the PS on its side though, at least if mein Deutsch is  sufficient still to read it.   It does sound fantastic, at least to me!!

cheers,

Dick

Hi Dick,
If the designer for your CDP was not worried about cost, then he would have tried it with and without an external supply, especially since it would add to small amount to the final price of the CDP.  He must have decided it was worth it to add the external supply.

Everyone else,
Late to this thread, but I have been busy, and work and the wife are both clamping down on the internet usage.  I have a Stan Warren modded SACD 1000.  I have also added a couple of Jensen caps to the PS, which was worth it.  I think upgrading caps to Blackgates or something is worthwhile.  I am also considering a clock upgrade, the superclockII.  This guy is expensive, but I know Ric Schultz at one point compared the superclock to the LCaudio clock, and preferred the superclock.

I have done some dampening to my CDP, and plan to do some more.  Anybody ever dampen a transport.  That was what I was thinking about doing, but I wondered if anybody could give any advice on this.  I was going to start a new thread to ask, but never go to it.  I did dampen the clock, and it made a not suble change in my CDP.  At first, I thought it made things too lean, but I like the change now.

For DACs, my 1000 uses Crystal's best, CS4397 I think.  One think I was thinking about here was "piggybacking" another DAC on top of it.  Heard that helps the sound.

If you check out referenceaudiomods, they put in a transformer stage after the DAC, to replace the output stage.  EVS has come out with a simple FET output for his Pioneer mods.

For CD tweaks, there is freezing, reburning on either a Pioneer PDR-W739 writer, or on a Yamaha CD burner in audio master mode.  Also some solutions like Auric Illuminator and Walker vivid.  I use Auric, and think it helps.  Some people demagnatize or deionize CD's.  Peter Belt claims putting a little piece of his foil helps.  Then there is sanding, and black markers, which was already mentioned.   I have also considered getting a CD mat to put on top, but have not tried it yet.

Randy

[DVV]

Hi Dick,
If the designer for your CDP was not worried about cost, then he would have tried it with and without an external supply, especially since it would add to small amount to the final price of the CDP.  He must have decided it was worth it to add the external supply.

Everyone else,
Late to this thread, but I have been busy, and work and the wife are both clamping down on the internet usage.  I have a Stan Warren modded SACD 1000.  I have also added a couple of Jensen caps to the PS, which was worth it.  I think upgrading caps to Blackgates or something is worthwhile.  I am also considering a clock upgrade, the superclockII.  This guy is expensive, but I know Ric Schultz at one point compared the superclock to the LCaudio clock, and preferred the superclock.

I have done some dampening to my CDP, and plan to do some more.  Anybody ever dampen a transport.  That was what I was thinking about doing, but I wondered if anybody could give any advice on this.  I was going to start a new thread to ask, but never go to it.  I did dampen the clock, and it made a not suble change in my CDP.  At first, I thought it made things too lean, but I like the change now.

For DACs, my 1000 uses Crystal's best, CS4397 I think.  One think I was thinking about here was "piggybacking" another DAC on top of it.  Heard that helps the sound.

If you check out referenceaudiomods, they put in a transformer stage after the DAC, to replace the output stage.  EVS has come out with a simple FET output for his Pioneer mods.

For CD tweaks, there is freezing, reburning on either a Pioneer PDR-W739 writer, or on a Yamaha CD burner in audio master mode.  Also some solutions like Auric Illuminator and Walker vivid.  I use Auric, and think it helps.  Some people demagnatize or deionize CD's.  Peter Belt claims putting a little piece of his foil helps.  Then there is sanding, and black markers, which was already mentioned.   I have also considered getting a CD mat to put on top, but have not tried it yet.

Randy

Randy, wouldn't it have been easier if you bought a Wadia straight out?

Cheers,
DVV

[randytsuch]

Randy, wouldn't it have been easier if you bought a Wadia straight out?

Cheers,
DVV

DVV,
Where's the fun in that?
Besides, I cannot afford a Wadia, that's why I went the modding route.  And, it more fun this way, and I think when I'm done, my 1000 would be close, if not better than a Wadia for CD, and will be easily better for SACD.

Randy

[DVV]

Randy, wouldn't it have been easier if you bought a Wadia straight out?

Cheers,
DVV

DVV,
Where's the fun in that?

True. There's something to be said for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands oily.

The only problem is that it's catchy. Start once and you never stop, and moreover, you start doing it elsewhere too. For instance, I am waiting for March or April, when it gets warmer, to start work on my li'l, ol' Yugo. Change its standard 1.1 to 1.4 litre engine with a longer stroke, modded engine head, larger valves, different intake manifolds, two twin Weber cards, etc, resulting in changing those 55 horsepower to around 100. Like I say, it's catching.

Besides, I cannot afford a Wadia, that's why I went the modding route.  And, it more fun this way, and I think when I'm done, my 1000 would be close, if not better than a Wadia for CD, and will be easily better for SACD.

Yeah, and I can't afford a BMW, much less a Ferrari. But I buy heavily into wolf in sheep's clothing philosophy, always did.

Cheers,
DVV

[randytsuch]

Hi DVV,
I was wondering why there is not more interest in this thread, or did I just get here late?

As far as modding other things, I have a three year old, and a five year old, barely have enough time for stereo, so the car is safe.  Beside, I don't think my wife wants me to soup up the minivan .

To more serious matters, I was wondering what your thoughts on CDP isolation are?  Under my CDP, I have a set of Aurio 1.1's, and I think they are nice.  I have also tried some homemade (really made by a machine shop) Diyumas and vibrapods.  I think anything helps, but the Aurios are the best I've tried so far.  BTW, I also add about 7 pounds of lead shot to the top of my CDP.  I saw on you webpage you like spikes under a CDP.  Have you ever compared spikes to Aurios or Darumas, or Rollerballs?  

Randy

[DVV]

Hi DVV,
I was wondering why there is not more interest in this thread, or did I just get here late?

As far as modding other things, I have a three year old, and a five year old, barely have enough time for stereo, so the car is safe.  Beside, I don't think my wife wants me to soup up the minivan .

To more serious matters, I was wondering what your thoughts on CDP isolation are?  Under my CDP, I have a set of Aurio 1.1's, and I think they are nice.  I have also tried some homemade (really made by a machine shop) Diyumas and vibrapods.  I think anything helps, but the Aurios are the best I've tried so far.  BTW, I also add about 7 pounds of lead shot to the top of my CDP.  I saw on you webpage you like spikes under a CDP.  Have you ever compared spikes to Aurios or Darumas, or Rollerballs?  

Randy

Everything I have sits on SoundCare spikes, literally everything, even my DVD player, and including my floorstanding speakers in the living room. Let's just say I believe decoupling is very beneficial to the sound.

Thanks to a friend from St. Louis, I have tried rollerballs, and a slew of other similar products, but have finally settled on SoundCare spikes as the best all-round solution. They are at http://www.soundcare.no .

Cheers,
DVV

[tmd]

For isolation, would a completely isolated CD player be the ultimate? As in magnetically levitated. I have seen that cool one on one of the groups a while ago. It seems extreme but would it be the best? The only coupling would be the cords then really.
Neil.

[randytsuch]

Neil,
For a CD player, I am not sure if you are just worried about isolating the player from external vibrations.  Part of the equation may be trying to dissipate the vibrations created by the CD transport, spinning the disk.

A while ago, Stan Warren was telling me his buddy made a disk, with the same song recorded several times, the difference was for one version it was sitting on darumas, another time on aurios, another on aurio pros, etc.  They did not listen to the song when it was recorded, so there was no external vibrations from music.  On this disk, he said you could hear the difference in the song, depending on what was isolating the recorder when it was recording.  The expensive aurio pros did the best job, but the surprise runner up was a set of darumas, without the top, and with a 1/2 in. tungsten carbide ball in it.

Randy

[tmd]

Thanks Randy. So, perhaps it would be better to try to isolate the transport from the rest of the machine and also damp the transport so that the laser doesn't pick up the vibrations. Then you would also need to damp and isolate the whole chassis for the usual reasons.
How does that sound?

[DVV]

Neil,
For a CD player, I am not sure if you are just worried about isolating the player from external vibrations.  Part of the equation may be trying to dissipate the vibrations created by the CD transport, spinning the disk.

A while ago, Stan Warren was telling me his buddy made a disk, with the same song recorded several times, the difference was for one version it was sitting on darumas, another time on aurios, another on aurio pros, etc.  They did not listen to the song when it was recorded, so there was no external vibrations from music.  On this disk, he said you could hear the difference in the song, depending on what was isolating the recorder when it was recording.  The expensive aurio pros did the best job, but the surprise runner up was a set of darumas, without the top, and with a 1/2 in. tungsten carbide ball in it.

Randy

Randy, Neil, before you go out to buy anything, open up your CD players or transports and tighten up the screws which hold the transport mechanism. Do NOT be surprised when you: a) find that they are fairly loose, and b) hear the difference after tightening them up.

Obviously, adding external methods of isolation will improve the sound yet more.

As for internal vibrations, there are traditional methods, like lining up the free space with Blu Tac or some such compund, and you might want to try adding or inserting some gnarled up newspapers inside (since the edges will be totally random, it will suck up sound waves like a sponge), or indeed, inserting some sponge over Blu Tac. All these will work, some more, some less, on any given player/transport.

Cheers,
DVV

[Jay S]

Randy, Neil, before you go out to buy anything, open up your CD players or transports and tighten up the screws which hold the transport mechanism. Do NOT be surprised when you: a) find that they are fairly loose, and b) hear the difference after tightening them up.

Dejan,

That sounds like a great little tweak!  I will have to try it out on my Cary.  It reminds me of my favorite no-cost tweak for my speakers -- tightening the speaker screws.  I do this every few months and find that they tend to get loose.  Tigtening the screws improves image focus, tightens bass and makes the highs sweeter.

[DVV]

Randy, Neil, before you go out to buy anything, open up your CD players or transports and tighten up the screws which hold the transport mechanism. Do NOT be surprised when you: a) find that they are fairly loose, and b) hear the difference after tightening them up.

Dejan,

That sounds like a great little tweak!  I will have to try it out on my Cary.  It reminds me of my favorite no-cost tweak for my speakers -- tightening the speaker screws.  I do this every few months and find that they tend to get loose.  Tigtening the screws improves image focus, tightens bass and makes the highs sweeter.

ANYTHING that vibrates tends to get loose, Jay, so why should transports be any exception? Exactly the same rules apply to them as they do to speaker drivers, mechanics are mechanics.

Thus, increasing the mass by adding Blu Tac reduces vibration in the absolute, but also changes the vibration spectrum of what remains.

I use SoundCare spikes - but not four, rather three of. Again, any mechanical engineer will tell you a three-way distribution of forces is easily the best there is, and SoundCare people know it, so they pack three spikes in a package. YBA does this straight out, as does Karan.

Cheers,
DVV

[eico1]

Don't over tighten speakers:) The guy who designed the jbl df120 suggests 'finger tight' for that speaker.


steve

[randytsuch]

I was not able to tighten the transport screws, the only one I could easily access was already tight.  I did not feel like taking my entire 1000 apart last night, will have to wait for another time   .

What I did not was put some sorbathane I just got (.2 inch thick, 30 duro) on the parts of the transport I could get to, which is mainly the front of it.  I put some strips across the sides, and across a bar on the top of the transport that holds the spindle.  Made a noticable improvement in details and blackness.

Randy

[DVV]

I was not able to tighten the transport screws, the only one I could easily access was already tight.  I did not feel like taking my entire 1000 apart last night, will have to wait for another time   .

Yeah, well, you have to have the tools for it. I spent like 20+ years collecting tools, a vice I inherited from my dad (a mechanical engineer, machine elements), thankfully with the other vice, which to keep the tools in good state and order, so I actually know where what is.

What I did not was put some sorbathane I just got (.2 inch thick, 30 duro) on the parts of the transport I could get to, which is mainly the front of it.  I put some strips across the sides, and across a bar on the top of the transport that holds the spindle.  Made a noticable improvement in details and blackness.

Randy

There you go. These little tweaks actually work sometimes, and basically, it all amounts to adding more mass.

Cheers,
DVV

[tmd]

What is the best CD player on the market hands down? There must be one outstanding model or perhaps a transport/dac combo? The reason I ask is that I would like to figure out what is missing in lesser models. I know there is one that everyone talks about for around $20k but can't remember the name. What would I need to do to my cheap Sony player to make it sound like that? Can even the best one out there be modded to sound better? I am thinking that someone will be able to find things to improve on even the best player.
Neil.