Should I mod my CD player?

Early B.

My goal is to get the best possible system within my current level of resources. That's why I'm considering making modifications to my Cambridge Audio 640C CD player in lieu of purchasing a new one (the one I really want costs close to $1,000). I like my Cambridge and would rather keep it than spend hundreds of extra dollars on another unit, so I found a local company that can upgrade the power supply, damp the chassis, upgrade the opamps, with a possible output upgrade with wiring -- all for $85 - $100. I don't know anything about this technical stuff, so I'm asking for some advice:

Is it worth pursuing?
Can I expect an audible improvement?
Is the price OK?

Thanks.

bknauss

I would worry more about upgraded DACs and stuff like that. And you'll need to do more than a simple drop in place replacement for any real results, and most likely for any audible results.

I would ask for a detailed list of what's going to be upgraded and how. At this point, it looks like he might be making a huge profit for doing a couple hours of work.

sowen010599

Most upgrades like that are easily done on your own, save for maybe the PS. Opamps are cheap and easily replaced. Get a roll of dynamat and damp it yourself. Install an IEC plug and get a Signalcalbe power cord. A better PS might help, but not much. If you had them externalize the PS, that would be much better. The biggest improvement would be the opamps. Google it. There is lots of info out there on mods.

madmax

Sounds like a reasonable price for upgrades if the guy puts any effort into it.
madmax

F1nut

$85.00 to $100.00 is a huge profit for what Early stated they would do??? No noticable results for that work??? Are you joking or just not in touch with reality?

bknauss

I'm taking a wild guess they won't change the PCBs at all, so...
-How are you going to upgrade the power supply? Add some better caps? That's very cheap. Change the transformer? You're not going to make any real advantages unless you put in a toroid transformer. Good luck fitting that in the small footprint area, so its almost not possible at all. Most other "upgrades" are going to really do nothing at all, even through electrical measurements.
-You can damp the chassis by putting dynamat or something like that on it. Generally that costs around $1 per square foot.
-Even if you upgrade opamps (which will most likely yield little or no real world results unless they really skimped out). Opamps are fairly cheap in quantity (even Burr Brown or other snazzy buzz words), or you could always get free samples.
-Output upgrade... well, its most likely going to be the answer above depending on what that means.
-Upgrade the wiring? Please, give me a break. Its going to be cheap as anything and since you're going to have an extremely short run of it in the chassis, the change in inductance, capacitance, etc will be extremely minimal.

I say it would cost $20 total for the above "upgrades". Even at $85, it should only be about 2 hours of work when things like ordering the products are included.... so you're looking at paying $65 for 2 hours of labor. Looks like what a mechanic would rip you off for.

Sorry, unless the guy is going to change out the PCBs with a brand new spanking design, its not worth that amount of money.

bknauss

Reading over that post, I came off a little... well, you guys can guess! Sorry about that.

Let's start over again... I'm Brian, I've got a background in engineering, and although I know all of these changes will produce measureable differences, even if it is in the milli- and micro- region, it won't produce an audible difference. From a good amount of A/B listening tests based off of hypotheses, I've found that my ears (and most likely more than a small percentage of others) can't tell the difference between measurable changes unless there is a big change. As in the case of THD, I can't hear the difference in an extremely low distortion sine wave (.01, .001%) and a .1% THD sine wave. I can start noticing a difference at 1% THD, but that's seen as fubar in the audio enthusiast rings, as it should be. That's just a little bit of what I believe. The ear isn't the most accurate test equipment, and when you have it connected to that stupid thing called a brain, it makes you think there's a difference when there simply isn't a difference from what your ears tell you.

Just my 2 cents. I understand others will believe differently, and I will tell myself to remember that in the future

F1nut

Thanks for confirming what I already suspected, you're not living in reality. Using your figures that would make the techs time worth $32.50 per hour which is pretty cheap.

Caps, prices vary and good ones aren't that cheap, easily $30.00 each for the top grade ones.
Transformer, it's no problem adding a toroid transformer, many CDP's come with them and others can/have been upgraded with them and they cost way more than $20.00.
Dynamat, fairly cheap.
Opamps, easily close to $20.00 alone.
Wiring, depends, but will be fairly cheap.

I've noted that other companies offer similiar mods for $500.00, so $85.00 to $100.00 is cheap and those having the mods done do report a noticable improvement.

Bottom line, even if the parts cost $20.00 and the labor is $65.00 what do you have against a business making a profit and a small one at that!?!

Addition: Since you added another post as I typed mine.......I and a few other guys I know here will tell you that there is nothing better than ones own ears for testing gear. If one can't trust their own ears then one might as well buy a Wave radio.

Just my .02

Early B.

I appreciate all the replies thus far. Seems like most other issues in audio -- you don't know it'll work until you try it.

I'll keep you guys posted and let you know what I decide to do.

Emlyn

Hi Early,
I'd recommend trying to do some modifications yourself on a cheaper unit like the $60 Toshiba 3960 DVD player before putting your 640C out for somebody else to experiment with. The 640C has proprietary circuitry in it, including two separate power supplies, data reclocking devices, etc. Modifying internals will most likely make it sound different, but no one knows whether the difference will be an improvement or not. I haven't been able to find examples of modified 640Cs on the internet. It may not be a good candidate for it right now, especially if it is still under the two year manufacturer warranty. Madmax's posts could point you in the right direction for attempting modifications on the Toshiba 3960.

If you do want to experiment with the 640C, I'd suggest starting with dampening it internally and externally and adding a non-stock power cord.

LittleCar_w/12s

You can find old IEC power sockets for free, just ask a PC repair shop for a busted power supply, and carefully remove it. Adding that will make the best difference, as the power cable can be significantly upgraded. Many say it helps quite a bit, though I would think only for higher output devices.

steveinaz

His CDP has an IEC socket already.

Early, try some tweaks instead. I had good success with Mapleshades' cone points and heavyhat weights on my old D500SE Cambridge.