{"id":67,"date":"2008-06-09T04:01:12","date_gmt":"2008-06-09T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/wordpress63\/?p=67"},"modified":"2008-06-09T04:01:12","modified_gmt":"2008-06-09T04:01:12","slug":"quality-is-as-quality-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyparadise.com\/w\/quality-is-as-quality-does\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality is as Quality does"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>how to get the better of &quot;bottomline people&quot;&#8230;<span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: Simpson Normal,Comic Sans MS\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Simpson Normal,Comic Sans MS\"> <\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><span>Quality is as quality does&#8230;<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>I&#8217;m having great fun modifying my Marantz CD63SE<br \/>\nCD player. Many folks have great write-ups on how to upgrade this player, with<br \/>\nminimum outlay of $$. Do a Google on &quot;CD63&quot; and it&#8217;ll lead you there.<br \/>\nNo point for me to repeat the above.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>Many of the mods are really simple, consisting of<br \/>\nreplacing inferior parts with higher quality parts etc. The mods are basically:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>replacing electrolytic capacitors with better<br \/>\n\tESR versions, like Elna Cerafine, Sanyo <a href=\"http:\/\/diyparadise.com\/w\/oscon.html\">Oscon<\/a>,<br \/>\n\tBlack Gates etc. Also, bypassing all electrolytics with small<br \/>\n\tplastic\/ceramic caps.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>beefing up the power supply before and after<br \/>\n\tthe regulators.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>improve the decoupling of the power supply by<br \/>\n\treplacing resistors with inductors. This reduces\/suppresses<br \/>\n\tdigital\/switching noise from coupling via the power supply.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>improving tolerance of sensitive circuits, like<br \/>\n\tthose in the I\/V conversion circuit, op amp circuits to 1% tolerance (or<br \/>\n\tbetter).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>re-layout sensitive circuitry, like the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acoustica.org.uk\/t\/63\/63hacks.html\">clock circuitry<\/a>. (when I showed the PCB layout of the clock circuitry to a knowledgeable friend here, he immediately went &quot;this layout is most probably done by some STOOPID engineer!&quot;)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<span>All very simple mods. Definitely recommended as it<br \/>\ntransforms a good sounding player to a great player! The gain in sonics is<br \/>\nsimply amazing! The modified player should cost couple times more, just by virtue of<br \/>\nparts that don&#8217;t cost more than RM100.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>What? RM100? And you get a player that could rival<br \/>\nplayers costing couple times more?<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>I&#8217;m afraid so.&nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>I don&#8217;t know what happened in Marantz as they<br \/>\ndesigned\/built this player. Were they aiming for the budget market? Or is it Ken<br \/>\nIshiwata&#8217;s team designed a very good player but then had to &quot;lower down the<br \/>\nperformance&quot; as instructed by the marketing department? I don&#8217;t know about<br \/>\nyou but I worked in an R&amp;D environment before and one of my pet peeve is<br \/>\nhearing the marketing folks go&#8230; &quot;we need to cost down this product&quot;.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m wondering this as not only the CD63 has inferior parts here and there, not to mention terrible PCB layout, but there&#8217;s even an unused slot for a common mode choke! Yes! This part has been<br \/>\njumpered off and the first common mode choke I found sits in perfectly! Could it<br \/>\nbe that this part was taken off just before production in the name of<br \/>\ncost-savings OR Marantz just felt that it doesn&#8217;t matter to the sound? (actually there are empty PCB slots EVERYWHERE, all nicely jumpered off. most probably a full-blown PCB was designed, then all the cost-cutting measures came in&#8230;) <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>Okay, perhaps I&#8217;m getting ahead of myself. I mean,<br \/>\nI should be rejoicing that folks around the world don&#8217;t need to pay big bucks<br \/>\nfor the CD63. Just spend a twiddly amount and you could upgrade it to a great<br \/>\nsounding player. I should be appreciating the genius of these designers who make<br \/>\ngreat sound with minimal cost. But this is not my point. <b>My point is about<br \/>\nthe quality of their work, and its effects on YOUR sonic chain, not<br \/>\nsome manufacturers&#8217; bottom line.<\/b> Yeah, it looks good on their balance sheet<br \/>\nbut it doesn&#8217;t do good to YOU.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>It&#8217;s almost a general rule that every $1 rise in<br \/>\nparts cost will cost a proportionate $4 rise in selling price. (it&#8217;s not scary<br \/>\nif your CDP cost RM1000, but it&#8217;s REALLY scary if your CDP cost RM20k.) Thus<br \/>\nbudget equipment definitely appreciate better quality parts.&nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>Open up your speakers and inspect your crossover.<br \/>\nSee any electrolytics there? Mine has one and I replaced this cap with some GE<br \/>\nmetallized polypropylene. (I don&#8217;t think it matters whether this cap is GE or<br \/>\nSolen) Guess what? The sonic character is still there but the tonal balance<br \/>\nchanged for the better! Before this, the midrange is more emphasized than the<br \/>\nrest of the spectrum but now it&#8217;s more even. Better still, I hear more bass now.<br \/>\nBetter defined as well! Dang! Just a RM20 cap!<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>See what I mean? Now take a look at the insides of<br \/>\nyour CD player, amp, speakers. See any corner cutting? Better still, want to try<br \/>\nput in some better quality parts?<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span><a href=\"http:\/\/home.attbi.com\/~ellisaudio\">Ellis Audio<\/a> has this to say about speaker <a href=\"http:\/\/home.attbi.com\/~ellisaudio\/CrossoverComponents.htm\">crossover components<\/a> in general. Cheap speakers (below USD600) use non-polarized electrolytics or mylars inside. Next up like &quot;B&amp;W Nautilus $2k-$8k&quot; uses made-in-Taiwan Bennic polypropylene. Metallized polypropylene like Solen etc is found in &quot;Tannoy Churchill $14k&quot;. More expensive makes will go for oil or even better quality (and expensive) polypropylene. Care to give your speaker the<br \/>\nhigh end treatment with better parts? Then tell me how it sounds!<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>Open up your tube amp and see what are the<br \/>\ncoupling capacitors inside. Do you see audiophile-approved boutique parts? Names<br \/>\nlike Jensen, Auricap, Hovland, MIT&#8230; Or do you see some non-recognizable make<br \/>\nthat the manufacturer claims to be &quot;specially selected after careful<br \/>\naudition&quot;? You can easily test their claims by substituting the said<br \/>\ncomponent with better ones. Then let me know!&nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>The point is, there&#8217;s definitely room for improvement inside your CDP\/amp\/speaker. All it takes is a willingness to void warranties and itchy hands. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you bought budget or damn-bloody-expensive equipment as manufacturers still need to reap big profits off you to stuff their coffers. You CAN get the better of them. &nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span>If you want to be El Cheapo like me, buy used equipment and go hacking! I bought a used problematic CD63 and has never looked back!&nbsp;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<i><span>*However, at the end of the day, I don&#8217;t<br \/>\nrecommend going overboard. If you have a RM1500 CD player, and you intend to<br \/>\nsplurge RM1000 on upgrading it, I would suggest you forget it. As much impact as<br \/>\nparts have on sonics, circuitry plays a more important role. A good circuit with<br \/>\ncheap parts will sound better than a bad circuit with expensive parts. Be<br \/>\nsensible.<\/span><\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<i><span>On the other hand, I don&#8217;t understand why folks<br \/>\ncomplain about high-priced boutique parts. They don&#8217;t mind paying RM1000 for<br \/>\nsome interconnects that has LESS impact on your sonics than some RM50 cap. Go figure&#8230;<\/span><\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p>&gt;<br \/>\n<script language=\"Javascript\">\n<!--\n\/\/ FILE ARCHIVED ON 20050213220437 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE\n\/\/ INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 20060729090918.\n\/\/ JAVASCRIPT APPENDED BY WAYBACK MACHINE, COPYRIGHT INTERNET ARCHIVE.\n\/\/ ALL OTHER CONTENT MAY ALSO BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT (17 U.S.C.\n\/\/ SECTION 108(a)(3)).\nvar sWayBackCGI = \"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20050213220437\/\";\nfunction xResolveUrl(url) {\nvar image = new Image();\nimage.src = url;\nreturn image.src;\n}\nfunction xLateUrl(aCollection, sProp) {\nvar i = 0;\nfor(i = 0; i < aCollection.length; i++) {\nif (typeof(aCollection[i][sProp]) == \"string\") {\nif (aCollection[i][sProp].indexOf(\"mailto:\") == -1 &&\naCollection[i][sProp].indexOf(\"javascript:\") == -1) {\nif(aCollection[i][sProp].indexOf(\"http\") == 0) {\naCollection[i][sProp] = sWayBackCGI + aCollection[i][sProp];\n} else {\naCollection[i][sProp] = sWayBackCGI + xResolveUrl(aCollection[i][sProp]);\n}\n}\n}\n}\n}\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"IMG\"),\"src\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"A\"),\"href\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"AREA\"),\"href\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"OBJECT\"),\"codebase\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"OBJECT\"),\"data\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"APPLET\"),\"codebase\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"APPLET\"),\"archive\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"EMBED\"),\"src\");\nxLateUrl(document.getElementsByTagName(\"BODY\"),\"background\");\nvar forms = document.getElementsByTagName(\"FORM\");\nif (forms) {\nvar j = 0;\nfor (j = 0; j < forms.length; j++) {\nf = forms[j];\nif (typeof(f.action)  == \"string\") {\nif(typeof(f.method)  == \"string\") {\nif(typeof(f.method) != \"post\") {\nf.action = sWayBackCGI + f.action;\n}\n}\n}\n}\n}\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>how to get the better of &quot;bottomline people&quot;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1497,1413],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learn-learn-learn","tag-clock-circuitry","tag-power-supply"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - 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