CDP Mods

Ricardo

luckily it seems there's enough space there; it might not look good...but who cares.

Early B.

Here is the "AFTER" pic of the Bada with the Sonicaps installed. See first post in this thread for the "BEFORE" pic.

I will report on the sound differences (if any) in a few days.

Ricardo

I would think you'll find some differences; anyway, I'm waiting for your thoughts

haimoc

What a difference after the mod. How difficult to do it yourself, Early B? Waiting for your review on the MOD cd player.

schwarcw

Nice job Early! I see a couple of opamps on the board, can you read and post the part numbers?

You may want to add a tube dampener. I think you have the room and it's cheap!;)

Let us know your observations. Most folks who mod their CDPs report the biggest change come from a clock upgrade. Send me a PM if your interested and I'll send you a reference on a DIY clock.

Good luck!

Systems

schwarcw wrote:

Nice job Early! I see a couple of opamps on the board, can you read and post the part numbers?

Good luck!

It is spec'd as the very competent Burr Brown OPA 2134's but in pic's Ive seen it actually had NJM parts which maybe their equivalent(copy).

Ricardo

See last picture here; Burr Brown OPA2604AP

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44767&highlight=opamps

Systems

HTrookie wrote:

See last picture here; Burr Brown OPA2604AP

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44767&highlight=opamps

Interesting,so they also used 2604's in some units.If you look at the description in the link they mention 2134's but in the spec listing it says OPA 260 which they probably meant 2604.http://pacificvalve.us/BDHD22.html

Early B.

The op amps are 2134's.

The Pacific Valve spec listing has a couple of mistakes, including the op amps.

Early B.

schwarcw wrote:

You may want to add a tube dampener. I think you have the room and it's cheap!;)

The pic shows a Herbies on the tube.

Early B.

schwarcw wrote:

Send me a PM if your interested and I'll send you a reference on a DIY clock.

I'm interested. Please post the link here for everyone.

The clock I really wanted cost more than what I paid for the CDP, so I decided not to pursue it. DIY is budget friendly.

F1nut

Sure is purdy!

Early B.

OK, I finally got my CDP back from the shop (long story). Plugged it up, popped in a CD and noticed an immediate and significant difference in the sound. It's very difficult to describe at this point, but all I can say is that the music sounds a lot fuller. There's more body, it's more robust, I guess. That's a good thing.

It also sounds like the stage took a few steps back. Another way to say that is it appears I'm sitting a couple rows further away from the performance. It's not good or bad yet, just different.

The Sonicaps are still breaking in, so I'll report back when I've put my ears on them again late tonight or tomorrow.

Ricardo

Looking forward to hear from you after they break in; I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts. If changing these caps have some decent impact on sound, I might try using Mundorf's.....I'm very happy with the results on the ASL monoblocks by just changing the coupling capacitors to Mundorf (and a few resistors);)

Systems

Great to hear you have it back and its working.
btw What was the problem?

Early B.

GV#27 wrote:

Great to hear you have it back and its working.
btw What was the problem?

Bad Zener.

schwarcw

Folks over at the DIYAudio Forum are doing flips over the Nationa Semiconductor LM4562 opamps. They sell for a little over $3.00 apiece and are supposed to be much better than the famed BB OPA2627, which cost about $27.

The OPA2604's and 2134's are very respectable.

Carl

Systems

schwarcw wrote:

Folks over at the DIYAudio Forum are doing flips over the Nationa Semiconductor LM4562 opamps. They sell for a little over $3.00 apiece and are supposed to be much better than the famed BB OPA627, which cost about $27.

Yeh the OPA 627 has been considered the Queen Mother of all audio opamps so the 4562 must be very good.I plan on using these in a active crossover project soon.

McLoki

schwarcw wrote:

Folks over at the DIYAudio Forum are doing flips over the Nationa Semiconductor LM4562 opamps. They sell for a little over $3.00 apiece and are supposed to be much better than the famed BB OPA2627, which cost about $27.

I am about to drop some of these in my NAD pre-amp. BTW - the single unit cost on them is about $5.00 each with a price break if you purchase more than 25 units. (purchased from Digikey - Not sure where else to get them)

Anyway - they are supposed to arrive next week. I will be replacing the NJM5532's in the pre-out stage (4 of them) and if that works out well I will replace 3 more NJM5532's on the DSP board. (I am getting in 7 of the LM4562's total)

I will let you all know how it goes.

Michael

Edit - here is the thread on my Mod. I got in some AD823's today that I was going to use, but I just found out I can get the LM4562's, so I may end up using the 823's somewhere else on the NAD or in a different project.

Early B.

I just finished listening to music for 2 hours and I am absolutely blown away by the Sonicap upgrade!!!:D

First of all, the upgrade is a significant one. The new caps made everything sound better. The first thing I noticed (as I already described) is that the music is definitely fuller. It is much more musical -- there is a clearer separation of instruments, the highs are crisper, the bass is cleaner, and the mids are stunning. At one point while listening to Liz Wright's vocals, my nut sacks began to tingle.

The music is faster. There's also slightly more slam. There's more air around the instruments. The vocals are more natural. Hell, I said everything improved, didn't I? So I'll stop here.



BADA OWNERS: This upgrade is very highly recommended. Total cost of the caps was $83.70 plus shipping.

Ricardo

Glad to hear that. Caps take LOTS of hours to fully break in; expect improvements up to 100 hours later. Sounds like I already have my next project.