With all the time on my hands what with no work here in WA I have been tinkering around with an Orelle Evo cd player. It was 1250 UKP back in 2004 when new so one would have fairly high expectations for it, but it never rose better than a very average product IMV. Build quality is lightweight and has a decent toroidal transformer for the main board and a separate small plate and frame transformer for the digital board (s).
So I raided the parts bin to see if it could be made to sound better bearing in mind different does not always equate to better. So first the transport which is an uninspiring VAM 12 mech clearly bought in and unchanged rather than the better Phillips swing arm CDM series. The laser assembly has a large daughter board beneath it which has an additional crystal lock mech which appears to be a standard 'off the shelf' board. Out went all the crap 10 cents caps and in went Oscons and Silmic 2's. Put it all back together and yup, a slight but very welcome increase in clarity, air and precision., hmmm I think, well what's next. The audio side of Chris Bryant's work is usually a labour of love but I note the bog standard voltage regs and the crappy output op amp. So solder sucker to hand and wham the op amp, an LF353 is out and rapidly binned in favour of a sparkos lab SS3602. This has a footprint only slightly larger than the dual in line socket it fits into so was chosen above the Burson and the Audio Guilds Moon or Sun opamps due to size.
So replace the main board, hook up all the ribbon connectors and insert into a Valve pre and power system driving JBL's and it.................woooo, far to hard and bright,yuk but I persevere for a couple of hours......... just as well I did as now things begin to smooth out and I immediately heard more detail but it was of the undigested kind, not smooth and well formed. Crikey had I just cocked it up? Well it turns out to be a big fat no. Given 6 hours or soo and it now starts to revel what it's capable of. Solid state at its best will never be as good as valves IMO can get, but it is now sounding really nice and it has some of the walk in soundstage of Marios system with its tiny speakers well into the room (sadly missed).
So what's next? Well the main crystal clock is still the dollar toss away crystal so a replacement clock c/w separate power supply is next which I also just happen to have in the parts bin. There luckily is enough space in the front of the case to mount the transformer and crystal board (audio guild) It also has some nasty metal film resistors in the OP stage so they will be replaced at the same time. I will try some slit foil Vishays and some Allen Bradleys for a comparison.
Whilst I would not rate op amps in the same league as the killer Dacs OP stage these Sparko labs may just lift your game enough to enjoy your old CD player as I have. They are not particularly cheap, here the Audio Guilds Moon, Sun and Earth opamps are around 1/3rd the cost but when space is limited maybe the new bursons will fit. As I have all these opamps, IMO the Sparkos edge out the others with their greater space, dynamics and clarity. They actually made me jump with one recording which has to be good - right?
I am currently listening to Bill Evans and Stan Getz play together and I am really enjoying it - that's almost sacrilegious for a Killer Dac owner to say, but I am smiling and its only been on for what 20 odd hours. I am put in mind of the old joke,
I am in no way affiliated with Sparkoslabs, but feel they are worth mentioning if you want to inject some new life and enthuisam in older silver disk spinners.
http://sparkoslabs.com/discrete-op-amps/The Audio Guild clock with a better 'class a shunt regulated power supply' is next, I can hardly wait but I want the latest round of changes to settle in first, then onwards again. I hope the clock brings similar gains to Mario's old Zen clock which I will
NEVER forget, yes it really was / is that good.
Pictures to come when next ripped apart.