croak
R.I.P. 28 June 2021
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2007
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To mod or not. CD63KI
So along the way I bought a Marantz CD63KI.
This CD player is perhaps the defining manufacturer tweak fest.
It was quite common for Marantz (as well as Philips when they owned the brand) to make one main chassis on which numerous players were based.
So the CD63/53/43 are basically the same mechanism and main board. In fact 57/67 are the same pcb too but case is a few mm narrower I think.
The differences are in the quality of the capacitors around the output filter and the addition of the HDAM modules and a brace to the cabinet on the top model.
The OSE versions of these players would typically get better output capacitors and better power supply decoupling capacitors to various degrees.
Then came the Ken Ishiwata signature. Ken Ishiwata had been voicing the Marantz products for years. I have also heard a story from a Marantz SA rep that got promoted to work in the UK being played a modified humble CD40.
The entry baby machine CD40 tweaked to the hilt by Ken Ishiwata in their facility beat a Wadia of the day in listening comparisons.
So, back to the 63KI. The KI signature got full Ishiwata treatment. He was kind of let loose to do as he pleased to it.
There are Elna Cerafine and Silmic speciality audio capacitors in all the areas seen as critical. The main transformer changed to a Talema toroidal. The chassis is copper plated and has an additional base plate to firm up the chassis even further.
It is quite iconic. Got rave reviews and I think broke some ground in being not a replacement but rather a model sold concurrent to the base model. The KI cost almost double the price of the vanilla 63.
Good an musical as it sounds it?s now well known that the clock implementation on this machine is less than ideal. (No upgrades to that circuit as part of the KI upgrade).
Another area that I have always found to make improvements on just about any audio unit that doesn?t have them are soft recovery diodes in power supply, it still surprises that this isn?t standard practice. I put them in all my custom power supply builds. (I once discussed this face to face over a few cigarettes with Ken Ishiwata. (HFX were great in bringing guys like him over for dealer seminars). Ken Ishiwata told me he does like these devices and in fact used them on the Musica amplifier he assisted / designed for his friend Franco Serblin of Sonus Faber.
To mod or not to mod?
Doing a clock upgrade and the diodes seem non invasive to the players gestalt. It?s non signal path. So I feel it will improve the player without losing what it?s about.
A next level would be more extreme. The Op amps are by today?s and even back then standards a bit mundane. The HDAM help the mundane op amps work better. It is felt by many modders that if you upgrade the op amps the HDAM is best bypassed.
This seems more invasive to the gestalt.
I hardly use digital optical spinners these days. I have a fair whack of interesting audio pieces I own as memoirs of my different times in audio. They are in storage not used. (Dunlavy Radford Quad Sonus Faber and Arcam amongst them).
So do I keep this well working sample stock or push it a little further for some fun and better sound or go even further using it mainly as a nice base for more ignoring what it is or means?
If I do some mods I might do some before and after recordings of it like I have been doing with turntables.
So along the way I bought a Marantz CD63KI.
This CD player is perhaps the defining manufacturer tweak fest.
It was quite common for Marantz (as well as Philips when they owned the brand) to make one main chassis on which numerous players were based.
So the CD63/53/43 are basically the same mechanism and main board. In fact 57/67 are the same pcb too but case is a few mm narrower I think.
The differences are in the quality of the capacitors around the output filter and the addition of the HDAM modules and a brace to the cabinet on the top model.
The OSE versions of these players would typically get better output capacitors and better power supply decoupling capacitors to various degrees.
Then came the Ken Ishiwata signature. Ken Ishiwata had been voicing the Marantz products for years. I have also heard a story from a Marantz SA rep that got promoted to work in the UK being played a modified humble CD40.
The entry baby machine CD40 tweaked to the hilt by Ken Ishiwata in their facility beat a Wadia of the day in listening comparisons.
So, back to the 63KI. The KI signature got full Ishiwata treatment. He was kind of let loose to do as he pleased to it.
There are Elna Cerafine and Silmic speciality audio capacitors in all the areas seen as critical. The main transformer changed to a Talema toroidal. The chassis is copper plated and has an additional base plate to firm up the chassis even further.
It is quite iconic. Got rave reviews and I think broke some ground in being not a replacement but rather a model sold concurrent to the base model. The KI cost almost double the price of the vanilla 63.
Good an musical as it sounds it?s now well known that the clock implementation on this machine is less than ideal. (No upgrades to that circuit as part of the KI upgrade).
Another area that I have always found to make improvements on just about any audio unit that doesn?t have them are soft recovery diodes in power supply, it still surprises that this isn?t standard practice. I put them in all my custom power supply builds. (I once discussed this face to face over a few cigarettes with Ken Ishiwata. (HFX were great in bringing guys like him over for dealer seminars). Ken Ishiwata told me he does like these devices and in fact used them on the Musica amplifier he assisted / designed for his friend Franco Serblin of Sonus Faber.
To mod or not to mod?
Doing a clock upgrade and the diodes seem non invasive to the players gestalt. It?s non signal path. So I feel it will improve the player without losing what it?s about.
A next level would be more extreme. The Op amps are by today?s and even back then standards a bit mundane. The HDAM help the mundane op amps work better. It is felt by many modders that if you upgrade the op amps the HDAM is best bypassed.
This seems more invasive to the gestalt.
I hardly use digital optical spinners these days. I have a fair whack of interesting audio pieces I own as memoirs of my different times in audio. They are in storage not used. (Dunlavy Radford Quad Sonus Faber and Arcam amongst them).
So do I keep this well working sample stock or push it a little further for some fun and better sound or go even further using it mainly as a nice base for more ignoring what it is or means?
If I do some mods I might do some before and after recordings of it like I have been doing with turntables.
