DIY electronics - need help getting started

I want to DIYing a CD player but I havent done electronics since school. Are there any books I should read first that would help with basic electronics?

 

No or yes ? Well there are books on theory ...but about hacking cdp's no or I've not found any.

I can offer some generic hints, and I've several mod sheets for different players....no the rotel is not one, if thats the one you want to mod.

Mine cover so far
Generic CDP
Denon dcd920
Arcam alpha 5 series
Arcam alpha 7se

also
Sony minidisc mj520

If you want me offer some advice hint or suggestions email me.

 

Basic Electronics, 8th edition by Bernhard Grob.
Electronics made Simple, 2nd edition by Ian Sinclair.
Starting Electronics 2nd edition by Keith Brindley
are three books that i've partaken a little light reading with over the last few months. The Grob book in particular is very good , however uses American notation and terminology, so be careful if using it to study for British Exams.

If you take a look in Hi-Fi World Magazine next time you are in WH Smiths there is usually a good selection of DIY type electronics books for sale from the World Audio bookshop.

 

depends what you want to do to it.

you can mod it, without knowledge of why you are doing something, rather like you can tinker with a car without knowing how the stuff works.

So do you seek to understand the theory or the rationale behind tweaking?

 

Well I want to upgrade some capacitors in my CD player to Rubycon Black Gates, just to see if I can improve the sound quality. But first I need to read up on stuff and learn how to solder properly and practice etc...

 

I have just changed some cathode caps on my dac to black gates, also tried oscons and silmics, the black gates are sligtly better, but its not huge, more benefit came with the coupling caps. I have hovland now, and they are nice.

 

Which ones are the coupling caps and what do you do to them?

 

I have no idea how you would fine them in non valve equipment without the makers schematic/service manual

 

I'm not a fan of black gates they seem to take for ever to sound good.

The caps arround the opamps normally give big gains when swapped, assuming there standard type to start with. Don't forget that anything the signal travels through will effect the final sound, so nasty crappy carbon film resistors will need changing. Get your self a solder sucker its a magic tool, in helping remove components from a pcb.

 

just a point of note if you are modding, be HUGELY careful, you can render your kit U.S.

hold the soldering iron on the part fro no more than 3-4 seconds, or you could ruin the pcb. you have to count. You have been warned. I have knakcered something totally in the past.

 

Thanks for the tips. It will take a lot of practicing before I try anything on my HiFi!

 

Get yourself a copy of "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz & Hill.

Not only is it an excellent book for those wishing to teach themselves, it's also a handy reference for existing engineers.

There's nothing in there that covers modifying CDP's specifically, but if you can grasp the concepts covered you'll be able to apply it to your CDP. (Probably a good idea to buy a cheap second hand unit to experiment on first )

 

Well Rotel uses Black Gates quite a lot in all it's kit. I've had a look in the 970BX and there a a good few Black Gates in there already, so I thought I would stick with Black Gates cos they are supposed to be very good sounding. I have read though that they take a good few hours to sound their best.

 

Black gates are excellent decoupling caps, but for other purposes they may not be the best choice.

The Art of Electronics is an excellent reference book, but it is pitched at a level that could be a little hard to digest for a beginner. Many electronic engineers refer to it as "The bible".

A good self-teaching book is Electronic Systems by M. V. Brimicombe. It starts from scratch, and covers all of what you'd learn in an electronics A level and some more.

If you fancy something a bit meatier, Engineering Circuit Analysis by Hayt and Kemmerly covers an awful lot of ground, and teaches how to analyse circuits mathematically.

 

Have you tried Pink fish?

http://63.99.108.232/forum/index.php

 

Thanks, I'd never heard of Pink Fishj before, looks interesting though.