Just got a Marantz CD 63 MK-2 KI Signature for 80 pounds and its in great shape...everything is in working order and the unit has been well looked after. I have always wanted to own a Ken Ishiwata product and I'm chuffed. I will give my opions on sound later as I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it. First impressions, great build, sounds quite analogue and has less of the Marantz sound which I like but just enough to let you know that you are listening to one. It has a warm sound signature, sweet midrange and treble and the bass of a tube amp. My CD 5004 is going away as I can't bear to listen to it without my dac. Goes well with my Cayin. I would like to hear from owners whether current or past, as well as fans and haters. What do you think of this CDP? Is it overhyped?
Marantz CD 63 MK-2 KI Signature (Appreciation/Owners/Complains/Opinions welcome)
- Thread starter shafesk
- Start date
There is no doubt that CD63 in particular its MKII KI Signature was and is still one of the great CDP in the past 20 years. With your stock CDP the SQ IMHO is comparable to present day's CDP of £800- 1000 price tag.
If you know DIY I recommend you to change the smoothing capacitors (to 4X 10000uF) on the digital and analogue rails and change the 7812 and 7912 voltage regulators with two low noise Regulators as well as all the dioides with schottky diodes; change the two stock opamps with better ones or discrete opamps; disable the HDAM circuit and the headphone output; and most importantly change the stock DAC clock by a low jitter clock of 16.9344MHz (and change the 8.467MHz clock to the servo if you can) then you will be amazed by its great jump in performance. Apart from that you can change all the stock capacitors of 220uF to Rubycon 470uF and change the stock toroidal transformer by 3 bigger capacity toroidal transformers to provide indenpendent source to different circuits.
(Remark: the work is actually not that difficult as you might have thought. I just followed what had been mentioned in the following forum having about 2000 pages of discussions on how modding can be done to CD63. If you have time have a good look at the threads and you will have more confident to carry out the work yorself. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/54009-marantz-cd63-cd67-mods-list-1867.html)
What you will get at the end of the day is a CDP comparable to something of over £3000. This is my personal experience and actually I have completed modding one myself. The SQ is so smooth, the bass is so tight and extended and the vocals are so real and without lossing all the details in the HF. Trust me my modded CD63's overall performance is so ear friendly that beats my Leema Antila IIS costing £3000. I am seriously considering selling my Antila which is now seldom used
If you know DIY I recommend you to change the smoothing capacitors (to 4X 10000uF) on the digital and analogue rails and change the 7812 and 7912 voltage regulators with two low noise Regulators as well as all the dioides with schottky diodes; change the two stock opamps with better ones or discrete opamps; disable the HDAM circuit and the headphone output; and most importantly change the stock DAC clock by a low jitter clock of 16.9344MHz (and change the 8.467MHz clock to the servo if you can) then you will be amazed by its great jump in performance. Apart from that you can change all the stock capacitors of 220uF to Rubycon 470uF and change the stock toroidal transformer by 3 bigger capacity toroidal transformers to provide indenpendent source to different circuits.
(Remark: the work is actually not that difficult as you might have thought. I just followed what had been mentioned in the following forum having about 2000 pages of discussions on how modding can be done to CD63. If you have time have a good look at the threads and you will have more confident to carry out the work yorself. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/54009-marantz-cd63-cd67-mods-list-1867.html)
What you will get at the end of the day is a CDP comparable to something of over £3000. This is my personal experience and actually I have completed modding one myself. The SQ is so smooth, the bass is so tight and extended and the vocals are so real and without lossing all the details in the HF. Trust me my modded CD63's overall performance is so ear friendly that beats my Leema Antila IIS costing £3000. I am seriously considering selling my Antila which is now seldom used
Absolutely superb CD player, up there with other legends like the Rotel RCD965BX. It's a machine from the latter end of CD's heyday, which IMO is a golden period to head to if you're looking for a fantastic 'classic' CD player.
Not one of the fans of the CD63KI here ... I was glad to change mine back in the nineties to a Trichord/Pioneer one.
Having said that, memory is notoriously unreliable so its possible that I'd feel differently now. I remember though they had very high jitter, noise or data I dont know but that could explain the slightly 'tubey' diffuse sound I recall and you mention as well.
regards
Having said that, memory is notoriously unreliable so its possible that I'd feel differently now. I remember though they had very high jitter, noise or data I dont know but that could explain the slightly 'tubey' diffuse sound I recall and you mention as well.
regards
Inter_Voice said:There is no doubt that CD63 in particular its MKII KI Signature was and is still one of the great CDP in the past 20 years. With your stock CDP the SQ IMHO is comparable to present day's CDP of £800- 1000 price tag.
If you know DIY I recommend you to change the smoothing capacitors (to 4X 10000uF) on the digital and analogue rails and change the 7812 and 7912 voltage regulators with two low noise Regulators as well as all the dioides with schottky diodes; change the two stock opamps with better ones or discrete opamps; disable the HDAM circuit and the headphone output; and most importantly change the stock DAC clock by a low jitter clock of 16.9344MHz (and change the 8.467MHz clock to the servo if you can) then you will be amazed by its great jump in performance. Apart from that you can change all the stock capacitors of 220uF to Rubycon 470uF and change the stock toroidal transformer by 3 bigger capacity toroidal transformers to provide indenpendent source to different circuits.
(Remark: the work is actually not that difficult as you might have thought. I just followed what had been mentioned in the following forum having about 2000 pages of discussions on how modding can be done to CD63. If you have time have a good look at the threads and you will have more confident to carry out the work yorself. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/54009-marantz-cd63-cd67-mods-list-1867.html)
What you will get at the end of the day is a CDP comparable to something of over £3000. This is my personal experience and actually I have completed modding one myself. The SQ is so smooth, the bass is so tight and extended and the vocals are so real and without lossing all the details in the HF. Trust me my modded CD63's overall performance is so ear friendly that beats my Leema Antila IIS costing £3000. I am seriously considering selling my Antila which is now seldom used
Thank you for the tips, I'm afraid I am not a great diyer. I struggle with screws! If there was a video tutorial I might have given it a shot but I think this is beyond my abilities. I think I'll give the insides a good clean first, can you recommend something I can use to clean the pcd and capacitors....is it ok to use contact cleaner and compressed air?
I completely agree and its great to see the forum member partnering it with such high end kit.MajorFubar said:
Drummerman can always count on you for being honest with your opinion, I'm aware that there are a lot of people who dislike it and a lot that swear by it as well....people seem to be dropping 1500 pounds on this cdp to upgrade it, there must be something there I thinkdrummerman said:
I had one partnering the PM66ki si amp and i thought the combo was astounding sadly I sold it all about 10 years ago when I thought playing music from a iMac/external active speakers was the future - how wrong was I?
I wouldnt hesitate to own/buy a used one again thought it was lovely smooth sound!
Would be interesting to see how it compares to my current sert up!
I wouldnt hesitate to own/buy a used one again thought it was lovely smooth sound!
Would be interesting to see how it compares to my current sert up!
shafesk said:
Not so sure what that says about the player.
I would just enjoy it the way it is if you like it.
regards
shafesk said:
Yes, contact cleaners e.g. from Malpline will be perfect. Compressed air and vacuum cleaner are also okay
You may wish to know that I am in the process of modding the 2nd CD63 MKII KI which will be connected to my headphone amplifier and my Senn HD800 for use in my bed room. The first CD63 I had modded previously is now in the living room connected to my Leema Tucana II and Spendor SA-1 ( I have put aside my Leema Antila IIS :wave: ).
That sounds great, I'm sure a lot of people would love to see a modding video of it. Would help a lot of people save a lot of money! Just curious, how much did your upgrades cost altogether?Inter_Voice said:shafesk said:
Yes, contact cleaners e.g. from Malpline will be perfect. Compressed air and vacuum cleaner are also okay
You may wish to know that I am in the process of modding the 2nd CD63 MKII KI which will be connected to my headphone amplifier and my Senn HD800 for use in my bed room. The first CD63 I had modded previously is now in the living room connected to my Leema Tucana II and Spendor SA-1 ( I have put aside my Leema Antila IIS :wave: ).
shafesk said:
It depends on what grade of electronic components you are using. For the first CD63 that I had modded I used average grade materials (capacaitors; transformers; jow jitter clocks and low voltage regulators etc) and the they costed me about £400. For the second one that I am now in the process of modding I am using top of the grade components and I expect the cost will be more than doubled. The most expensive items are the two high grade low jitter clocks, the Burson opamps and a few very low noise voltage regulators which cost me almost £700. When taking in acount of the high grade capacitors and the transformers etc the total material cost will be just less than £1000.
Inter_voice, based on your extensive experience of modding this player, how to you feel the transport stands up to scrutiny? It's quite possible to spend serious amounts of money buying just the transport alone. Some manufacturers even design their own. But your upgraded 63KIs are getting by with the transport in a unit which even to start with was a modded budget player (the basic CD-63mkII). The implications of your findings are surely that OTT expenditure on the transport is wasted.
MajorFubar said:
Well, originally I also had the option of just to improve the transport circuitry and do nothing on the analogue output stage. If that was the case the modding cost using top grade components would be less than £500. On the first project I did not use top grade components and the transport alone is already very good. I have tested it by using my Yulong D100 DAC and compared it head to head with my Leema Antila IIS as transport. As expected it beats my Leema.
It is difficult to say whether the money is well spent but from my ears I can hear a real difference and that explains why I started to mod another unit using top of the grade components in order to stretch the CD63 to its limit. I can then use the finished product as a transport or as a stand alone CDP. Just to take this opportunity to mention that my friend is going to buy me a Yulong D18 DAC when he goes to the far east on his business trip and hope the DAC will be in my hands in 2-3 week's time :bounce:
I am a proud owner of one. I bought it in 1998 and its still going strong. I haven't modded it but I put some blu-tac on the horizontal cross brace and in the holes on top of the transport, to reduce vibration. T
he only complaint I have are the weak RCA output jacks. Interconnects can be hard to unplug and juggling can damage the solderings of the RCA output jacks. I have had to open the machine and re-solder the jacks.
Does anyone know of better RCA output jacks for this kind of player?
he only complaint I have are the weak RCA output jacks. Interconnects can be hard to unplug and juggling can damage the solderings of the RCA output jacks. I have had to open the machine and re-solder the jacks.
Does anyone know of better RCA output jacks for this kind of player?
stefanom said:
On my first modded unit I changed the 2 stock RCA sockets with something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190747672575?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
You just solder the RCA sockets out from the PC board and use short cables to connect the new RCA sockets. It is relatively simple. The design of CD63 is so good that you can easily strip down all the parts and not like those modern day designs that taking apart a unit is almost impossible.
On my 2nd unit I will use high grade audiophile RCA sockets with very high purity audiophile copper cables for connections.
Thank you, it helped. I opened the case, used a blower on the pcb and then sprayed the whole pcb with contact cleaner and then sprayed the front panel with contact cleaner. It looks new! Not a dust bunny in sight! Unfortunately, I do have some scratches on the cd player's display, any idea what I can do?drummerman said:
Yes. It is an old watch makers trick to polish out scratches and I've used it in the past on Swatches which use a plastic crystal.
http://www.clickcleaning.co.uk/Products/315/Brasso-Wadding-75g.aspx?option=526&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shoppingfeed&gclid=CP_SppC70LMCFU3HtAodRxgAXQ
Takes a bit of elbow grease and has a habit of getting into nooks and crannies so I'd advise to either take the display cover out if you can or tape off the edges.
regards
http://www.clickcleaning.co.uk/Products/315/Brasso-Wadding-75g.aspx?option=526&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shoppingfeed&gclid=CP_SppC70LMCFU3HtAodRxgAXQ
Takes a bit of elbow grease and has a habit of getting into nooks and crannies so I'd advise to either take the display cover out if you can or tape off the edges.
regards
drummerman said:
Ha drummerman you really have a lot of DIY knowledge :clap: This is an old trick and I used to apply the same stuff to bring my watch shines again.
Thanks for that.
Do you use any special kind of cables to connect the RCA socket, or just ordinary jumper cables?
Recently the left channel of the player has started to distort and crackle the sound a little bit. I also notice low clicking noise on the left channel when I change tracks on the CD. This is not the case when I use the headphone output. I suspect the muting transistors in the analog output are starting to fail. Has anybody removed these muting transistors, and does it improve the sound?
Do you use any special kind of cables to connect the RCA socket, or just ordinary jumper cables?
Recently the left channel of the player has started to distort and crackle the sound a little bit. I also notice low clicking noise on the left channel when I change tracks on the CD. This is not the case when I use the headphone output. I suspect the muting transistors in the analog output are starting to fail. Has anybody removed these muting transistors, and does it improve the sound?
I don't think it would make the player sound better, I thought when muting transistors were off then basically they're out of circuit. Hey try it, what's the worst that can happen
Muting trans. eliminate interference noise when cd in not playing. With them removed there should be a popping noise when you power up/power down the cd player. Workaround: Power up cd player before amp - power down amp before cd player.
drummerman said:
Kudos to you Drummerman, worked wonders on my Marantz....the change is quite unbelievable. I also used brasso on my watches and they look great too. I did use contact cleaner after brasso and it seems to add some shine to it.
Removed the 4 muting transistors and I am quite impressed with the result. The sound opened up and is clearer. Minor drawback is low "click" sound when I turn on/turn off the player. Its not loud so no big deal.
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