My friend just installed a new clock, rectifier diodes and WBT nextgen copper rca's on my Lector Mk 1.
Wow :thumb:
What a nice difference. Black background, very clean and quiet, super analogue, super musical. The Lector didn't have much digital noise to begin with,it always had a fat analogue sound, it just took its true nature to come out even more. Very open and smooth and refined. The toe has no choice but to tap.
It seems to suck you in more, or rather draw you in and make you want to listen more
Clock was $ 45,,, WBT's $85, diodes $3 each (12).
Very much worth it! Just took the nature of the cd player and enhanced it, didn't change it.
Sowter Dac transformers will be here in about 6 weeks...will let you know what that does!!
Pretty amazing the shitty level of components they put in even expensive players, I wish they would spend less on chassis and lights and bling and concentrate on design, implementation, and quality parts.
We would all be much happier!
Mike
8) Mike.....Bring it to the next Rave so we can have a listen .... :thumb:
Another modder! way to go.
CHRIS,
I plan on it.
I spoke to Charles about it and he said Yes :thumb:
would like to compare a stock Lector to a modded one, we can even use the same tubes to keep it consistent.
about modding: I have been burned in the past with just parts swapping mods, finding an experienced tech who has an ear makes all the difference in the world!
Mike
Looking foward to hearing it. What clock ? Manf ? There are clocks and then there are clocks. What diodes ? Who did the work ? Linky ?
charles
Hey, i the rave is going to fall on the 24th I can bring my Ayre for a little comparo.
What clock you say?
Why a Chinese clock! it is rated at 1 ppm whatever that means :-P, don't know the brand but I could find out.
Diodes are Shottky.
Considering the clock in my Lector cost about $1.12 the $45.00 clock seems like a BIG upgrade.
Of course there is the Super clock 4 and then the ULtra clock as well, but they are too much money for me, I had to save my money for transformers!!
Work was done by Karl, very intimate knowledge of all things digital and analogue
Very yummy sound, can't wait for the trannies :drool:
Mike
Quote from: topround on July 07, 2010, 02:59:36 PM
Why a Chinese clock! it is rated at 1 ppm whatever that means :-P, don't know the brand but I could find out.
1ppm = 1 part per million...
The clock is rated to be accurate within 1 clock period per 1,000,000 clock periods.
Dave
is 1 ppm good?
Anytime someone puts a new clock in their player I have to wonder why they don't get a rubidium atomic clock. They don't cost that much see ebay link http://cgi.ebay.com/FE-5650A-Rubidium-Atomic-Frequency-Standard-/170508481938?cmd=ViewItem&pt=BI_Cellular_Optical_Television_Test_Equipment&hash=item27b318f592
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rubidium-FE-5650A-Rubidium-Frequency-Standard-10-MHz-/220330877404?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item334cbe61dc
This would seem to be the ultimate clock upgrade for CD players.
Scotty
Quote from: topround on July 07, 2010, 06:55:49 PM
is 1 ppm good?
1ppm is very low, that's SOTA right now. Even spec-obsessed Bryston claims "<1ppm jitter" for their CDP. ;)
Here you go Scotty: http://antelopeaudio.com/en/products_iso_10m.html
Well if its good enough for them.... ;)
Mike does your Tech have the wiring diagram for the Lector ? Does he have an email we can contact him at. BTW invite him to the July Rave we would like to meet him.
charles
Charles,
He does not have a schematic for the Lector, he did not need one for what he was doing to my Lector. He will be at your rave. Maybe we will have the ATM 1 integrated for the Pipedreams? Unless you have your amps back.?
Mike
Damn son, those are pricey. :duh
Quote from: _Scotty_ on July 07, 2010, 07:51:59 PM
Anytime someone puts a new clock in their player I have to wonder why they don't get a rubidium atomic clock. They don't cost that much see ebay link http://cgi.ebay.com/FE-5650A-Rubidium-Atomic-Frequency-Standard-/170508481938?cmd=ViewItem&pt=BI_Cellular_Optical_Television_Test_Equipment&hash=item27b318f592
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rubidium-FE-5650A-Rubidium-Frequency-Standard-10-MHz-/220330877404?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item334cbe61dc
This would seem to be the ultimate clock upgrade for CD players.
Scotty
The clock I installed was very cheap and much better spec'd than the original clock.
It may not be necessary to spend bundles of cash on a clock.
This may require a clock shootout (like that would ever occur) to see how different the clocks sound, but I can tell you from my limited experience that the cheap clock upgrade I made was worth it.
Are the more expensive clocks better, I don't know, I would hope so.
A souped up V12 would be a great engine upgrade to any car, but most people would be happy with a souped up v8 upgrade. Especially those of us driving 4 cylinder cars. But then there are some that must just have the V12 upgrade. I know I would too ;), especially if you had the opportunity to drive the V12.! The V8 would be just plain slow. But the V12 is out of reach for most of us. At least for me.
Not a great analogy, but one that might work.
Mike
Mike
Quote from: topround on July 18, 2010, 10:28:04 AM
Charles,
He does not have a schematic for the Lector, he did not need one for what he was doing to my Lector. He will be at your rave. Maybe we will have the ATM 1 integrated for the Pipedreams? Unless you have your amps back.?
Mike
Great, nope, they sent the wrong trannies waiting for a delivery. Bring amps :thumb:
charles
Just some thoughts:
I was speaking to my tech friend about maybe changing the 12at7 tube in my Lector cd player to maybe a 12ax7 or maybe a 5687. He said no problem , easy to do and may sound good.
Then I asked about 300b, he laughed a hearty Chinese laugh, and said that might be excellent, than he said no we will try 45 tube, then I said no how about 6sn7, then he said 26 tube, all to laughter on both sides of the phone.
Then I said let's do this.
He said let me build a chassis with 9, 8 and 4 pin sockets, it will be wired up as a tube buffer to replace the tube buffer in the Lector. We can try all sorts of tubes and see what it likes.
Then I said what if we transformer couple the tubes, when he laughed and said yes we use Tango's to replace the 2 6.8 uf caps in my cd player.
Which I responded how about impedance matching the tube buffer to drive Slagle Autoformers?
He(we) howled in excitement.
So maybe we will, (which means we will) build a multi tube buffer box, transformer couple the cd player and drive a TVC!!
It could be great..it could be
Only one way to find out :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :drool:
I love this hobby, sometimes the road seems straight and sometimes you have to take the scenic route.
Mike
Yeah, I bet it will fly... It's gonna be rich like orange truffle tenderloin benedict. Mike, you are turning into Gary Pimm (http://www.pimmlabs.com/) with all those DHTs and transformers! A friend has the Slagle AVCs in his Bent TAP, loves the sound, very clear and open.
So let me get this straight: Sowter is out, 12ax7 is in for more gain, then Tango to bring down impedance. Then out to the Devil's Buffer Box with 6SN7 and AVC output? Or are you keeping the sowter inside the CDP, then the buffer box will be 2 stage, 12AX7 and 6SN7? But then where does the Tango iron go?
Rich
:pop
The Lector is running one tube now, just a 12at7, as a tube buffer, remove the 12at7, and try the buffer box with the different tubes to see which tube I like best.
Sowter is still there. Tango's would replace the 2 large 6.8uf coupling caps in the cdplayer.
The buffer box is only to test tubes, also because a 300b or 45 tube would not fit in the Lector.
So just a single stage buffer feeding the AVC's.
At least that is what mytech guy tells me.
I was looking atreplacing the stock 6.8 caps with something better but something better is very expensive because of the size. Might be able to get away with a smaller cap, but at $200 per cap , it is now possible to spent that money on transformers instead.
Is this better? But it is interesting, and I would love to know. It is basically going to cost me the parts to do it. And I would love to try a passive volume control. I never really liked the resistor based volume controls, they are very clean and open, but they strip music away form me. These transformer volume controls are not supposed to do that.
I heard a S&B based TVC and really liked it, I heard it in 2 different systems in 2 very different setups and was very impressed. The Slagles are supposed to be even better than the S&B's.
Then there are Silk TVC's as well as Sowter, lots of choices, all not cheap
But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I am willing to take a few steps backward to gain a bit of knowledge and experience. And with getting the impedances right, could go a long way to great sound.
As my friend Joe says,
sometimes when you are digging for copper, you hit gold.
Mike
Mike
Thanks, sounds very cool.
Mike the cathode follower is a buffer in disguise ? who woulda known. Why not consider taking out the analog board all together. Then just build a gain stage with trannie output with an external buffer. Or eliminate it all together and rely on that 26 tube pre for the flavor.
I always felt that the weakest part of the CDP is the analog board and then power supply. Have fun, I know you will.
charles
Mike,
For large value coupling caps, the two best that I've heard so far are Claritycap MR and Duelund Cu VSF. The MR is very transparent and dynamic. The VSF is a little softer sounding in comparison.
Quote...As my friend Joe says,
sometimes when you are digging for copper, you hit gold.
There is also another saying...all that glitters may not be gold. :thumb:
Yeah but at todays prices even less glittery metals such as silver or copper might not be such a bad thing :thumb: