Level 1 upgrade to Marantz CD63 ki

[lewis hurlin]

I am considering getting a level one upgrade by Fidelity Audio on my Ki Sig . Have any members had this done and what did you notice the difference was . I was Audiolab 8000a&p amplifiers and a pair of Monitor Audio BR5 speakers

 

[BigH]

There was a very similar post last week: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/modifying-cd-players

 

[Overdose]

I am considering getting a level one upgrade by Fidelity Audio on my Ki Sig . Have any members had this done and what did you notice the difference was . I was Audio lab 8000a &p amplifiers and a pair of Monitor Audio BR5 speakers

The mod is £369, your CD player potentially worth in excess of £200.

For that sort of moeny you could buy an Audiolab 8200CD, OPPO BDP103 or Marantz SA7001, all new and with warranty and offer more than just CD playback.

 

[BigH]

I am considering getting a level one upgrade by Fidelity Audio on my Ki Sig . Have any members had this done and what did you notice the difference was . I was Audio lab 8000a &p amplifiers and a pair of Monitor Audio BR5 speakers

The mod is £369, your CD player potentially worth in excess of £200.

For that sort of moeny you could buy an Audiolab 8200CD, OPPO BDP103 or Marantz SA7001, all new and with warranty and offer more than just CD playback.

Do you mean the Audiolab 8200CD? Thought that was just a cd player and costs about £800?

 

[stevebrock]

Or a nice DAC & NAS

 

[stevebrock]

Keep the CD63 Ki in its stock form - still a superb CD player

 

[Overdose]

I am considering getting a level one upgrade by Fidelity Audio on my Ki Sig . Have any members had this done and what did you notice the difference was . I was Audio lab 8000a &p amplifiers and a pair of Monitor Audio BR5 speakers

The mod is £369, your CD player potentially worth in excess of £200.

For that sort of moeny you could buy an Audiolab 8200CD, OPPO BDP103 or Marantz SA7001, all new and with warranty and offer more than just CD playback.

Do you mean the Audiolab 8200CD? Thought that was just a cd player and costs about £800?

Yes, the 8200 would need to be bought used, but no difference there to maintaining old kit. The point being, that paying money for a modification of questionable benefit might be better spent on something altogether more capable in the first instance.

You also have to ask yourself why a chap like the venerable Ken Ishiwata would put his name to a product that had a 'compromised' power supply. So compromised in fact, that it so audibly affected the sound quality.

 

[BigH]

I think the difference in price between the 63SE and KI was £200 so i guess they can't upgrade everything. The upgrade cost does seem quite expensive. As one the other post someone is getting theirs upgraded so hopefully next week we will get an opinion however they are doing the level 3.

 

[lewis hurlin]

I would love to hear some opinions from people who have had this done before I decide . I am using the CD player with an rdac at the moment . I think the upgrade would improve things some what

 

[MajorFubar]

I would love to hear some opinions from people who have had this done before I decide . I am using the CD player with an rdac at the moment . I think the upgrade would improve things some what

Just wondering what you think an upgrade to the CD player will improve if you're already using it with an external DAC. Unless you mean after the upgrade you wouldn't use the external DAC.

 

[Overdose]

I think the difference in price between the 63SE and KI was £200 so i guess they can't upgrade everything. The upgrade cost does seem quite expensive. As one the other post someone is getting theirs upgraded so hopefully next week we will get an opinion however they are doing the level 3.

Which would buy a Benchmark DAC1 HDR, ADM9RS, or KEF LS50 and A19 package.

Spending that much money on just a mod seems nuts to me.

 

[Inter_Voice]

I have modded a CD63 KI using top of the grade components. Material alone costed me more than £600. When I compared the completed CDP with my Leema Antila II I can't believe that it can easily beat this £3000+ CDP. Eventually I sold the Antila II in the Bay and I am now using my modded CD63 KI.

If you can carry out the modding work youself I suggest you do it your own instead of using a third party modder.

There are 2000 pages of discussion in the following thread which my modding project is based:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/54009-marantz-cd63-cd67-mods-list-1903.html

 

[the record spot]

...and you'd be lucky to find a SA7001-KI kicking around. There's a few but nothing like as many as the CD63-KI.

 

[Overdose]

...and you'd be lucky to find a SA7001-KI kicking around. There's a few but nothing like as many as the CD63-KI.

The bay had one this morning. Besides, it was more of an example of what more modern/newer equipment can be had for the money.

 

[Overdose]

I have modded a CD63 KI using top of the grade components. Material alone costed me more than £600. When I compared the completed CDP with my Leema Antila II I can't believe that it can easily beat this £3000+ CDP. Eventually I sold the Antila II in the Bay and I am now using my modded CD63 KI.

If you can carry out the modding work youself I suggest you do it your own instead of using a third party modder.

There are 2000 pages of discussion in the following thread which my modding project is based:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/54009-marantz-cd63-cd67-mods-list-1903.html

Whilst I'm sure there are people with time to peruse 2000 pages, could you just point me to the bit where you took the before and after measurements?

 

[lewis hurlin]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

 

[MajorFubar]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

As per my question above...still wondering what improvement you think you're paying for if you intend to continue using the external DAC? I'm not having a pop, I'm trying to save you money...

 

[Pete68]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

As per my question above...still wondering what improvement you think you're paying for if you intend to continue using the external DAC? I'm not having a pop, I'm trying to save you money...

Hello Major. I am having some upgrades done on my amps and CD player with Fidelity Audio and will post the results over the next few weeks. In the meantime I thought I'de share this short article about modding in general. I think it explains things quite well and gives an idea of how modifying internal parts can help and why.

 

[Overdose]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

As per my question above...still wondering what improvement you think you're paying for if you intend to continue using the external DAC? I'm not having a pop, I'm trying to save you money...

Well, they do 'transport only' mods as well, so perhaps that would be a more suitable choice if an external DAC is to be used.

 

[MajorFubar]

Indeed...no point paying for something that's not going to get used.

Think carefully what you're buying if you only intend to use it as a transport.

 

[the record spot]

...and you'd be lucky to find a SA7001-KI kicking around. There's a few but nothing like as many as the CD63-KI.

The bay had one this morning. Besides, it was more of an example of what more modern/newer equipment can be had for the money.

Indeed, and there's two currently. One being the stock, non-KI model. There are currently 17 CD63-KI Mk II models on Ebay...!

 

[Overdose]

...and you'd be lucky to find a SA7001-KI kicking around. There's a few but nothing like as many as the CD63-KI.

The bay had one this morning. Besides, it was more of an example of what more modern/newer equipment can be had for the money.

Indeed, and there's two currently. One being the stock, non-KI model. There are currently 17 CD63-KI Mk II models on Ebay...!

I'm sorry, missed your point.

 

[the record spot]

It's alright, it doesn't need explaining.

 

[stefanom]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

Hi I replaced mine RCA sockets with Neutrik NYS367. Gold-plated and fit easily to the chassis.

You should mod your player, you won't regret it. I am in the process of modding my 15 year old CD63 KI. I have already swapped diodes and some critical capacitors in various stages. My player has taken a leap forward in performance. Next on agenda is replacing op-amps for much better ones and adding low jitter clock.

 

[Inter_Voice]

Thanks for the tips. I will send it of to fidelity as not confident with a soldering iron. I want the level 1 upgrade plus changing phono sockets as stock ones are crap , which ones should I go for? Also mains cable too

Hi I replaced mine RCA sockets with Neutrik NYS367. Gold-plated and fit easily to the chassis.

You should mod your player, you won't regret it. I am in the process of modding my 15 year old CD63 KI. I have already swapped diodes and some critical capacitors in various stages. My player has taken a leap forward in performance. Next on agenda is replacing op-amps for much better ones and adding low jitter clock.

Trust me you will be amazed by the BIG improvement in SQ when you have done all the mods

I suggest you change the stock transformer with a much bigger capacity and there will be noticeable improvement in performance. Then change the smoothing caps for the transformers and other critical caps for the servo and opamps. Change the diodes, disable the HDAM and headphone circuit, disable the stock muting circuit and replace it with relay operated muting circuit, change the opamps to 4562HA or diccrete opamps like Burson, change the low jitter clocks for the servo (8.xx Mhz), DAC and decoder (16.xx Mhz), use very low noise regulators supplying independent power to the ICs, decoder and DAC etc. Put damping pads on the CDP case.