Modded my Lector CD Player !! WOW

[topround]

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

[rollo]

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 


charles

[topround]

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

I love this hobby, sometimes the road seems straight and sometimes you have to take the scenic route.

Mike

[richidoo]

Yeah, I bet it will fly... It's gonna be rich like orange truffle tenderloin benedict.  Mike, you are turning into Gary Pimm 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
 

[topround]

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

[richidoo]

Thanks, sounds very cool.

[rollo]

  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

[Face]

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. 

[AcidJazz]

...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. 

[topround]

Yeah but at todays prices even less glittery metals such as silver or copper might not be such a bad thing