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mjp200581

mjp200581

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I just won an eBay auction for a fabulous Sony 227 esd CD player.

Can't wait for it to arrive from Germany. !
 
Just don't go and do this to it ;)

IMG_2318.jpg
 
Yikes! It looks like Mr Lampizator has been at that one.

I've certainly no intention of doing that to mine, although it might not remain 100% standard for long ;)

The first job is going to be converting it from 220v to 240v. I think it can be done by making a hard-wiring alteration to the small PCB near the power cord inlet. Hopefully it'll be fairly obvious when I see it.
 
The 227 ESD arrived safely today and it's a beast!




Frustratingly though I can't play with it yet as it first needs to be converted from 220v input to 240v. The service manual states that the player can be set up for UK mains voltage by 'Sony personnel' but doesn't give any further instructions on how to make the conversion.

There is a small PCB at the mains inlet of the player and it's clearly marked with AE (i.e. 220v) and UK (i.e. 240v). I thought the conversion would simply involve moving the red wire from the position marked 'AE' to the pin marked 'UK' but on closer inspection this doesn't seem to be the case. Both the 'AE' pin and 'UK' pin appear to leave the red wire floating so moving it across won't change anything. It looks to me like I need to install some capacitors in the empty positions to make the connection from the 'UK' pin to the rest of the circuit.

I'd very much appreciate some help with this as I really don't want to make a mistake!


 
Hold up! I think I may have just found the answer (see pic below).


So, in 220v mode the red is floating and violet is connected to one side of C991. To convert to 240v mode I swap the positions of the red and violet wires so that red is connected to C991 and I leave violet floating. That makes sense doesn't it?
 
All sorted now, it's alive :)

Listening now and it's good......very good. At first impressions smoother than my Arcam but maybe less exciting. I'll let you know how I get on after some more listening.
 
Good Job! I was going to say looking at the transformer itself, it looks like red is just a slightly longer run on the primary winding since it comes out further to one side than the violet wire. So if red were connected in place of violet it makes the primary side larger and increases the ratio for 240v instead of 220v.
 
Thanks Simon.

I've done a bit of decent listening with the Sony now and it's a nice player with a very smooth and refined presentation. I'd say that in standard trim it's the best CD player I've had, possibly just edging out the Creek CD60 and much better than a standard Arcam Alpha 5 which is a diamond in the rough.

Swapping back to my mega modded Arcam is an eye opener, the Arcam is in a different league and has it well a truly beaten!! The main difference is that the modded Arcam is just so much more exciting and engaging to listen to where the Sony is smooth and polite.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to modify the Sony or not. All in all it's probably better than the Alpha 5 in stock form and may have the potential to be even better than my mega modded Alpha 5 (which is a scary thought :)). On the other hand it's almost certainly worth more in mint unmodified condition, especially as I've now converted it to UK spec.

I might be asking you to move this thread into the DIY section very shortly......
 
That's pretty much the conclusion I'm coming too myself. Whereas the Arcam is a project to see how far I can go with a CDP with the Sony it's just too nice and original to start hacking about.

I'm going to start with some very basic and easily reversible mods/updating to see if it opens up a bit of extra je ne sais quoi. Feel free to move this thread to the DIY section if/when you feel it more appropriate.

I'll start with replacing a few of the smaller electrolytics in the analogue section with Elna Silmics. I'm also going to replace both the R1 selection TDA1541A chips and upgrade them to non R1 rated chips from 1998. To my ears these late production TDA1541A chips are a big improvement over earlier production versions when people finally cotton on to this the price will rise so I've stockpiled my own little stash for future projects.

The Alpha 5 has taught me a heck of a lot about how to get the best from the TDA1541A so I'm at at a big advantage this time around. They'll be no experimenting, only sensible tried and tested upgrades which I know will yield predictable and beneficial results.
 
How do you get the chips out without breaking the legs? I always struggle to get multi-pin DIP devices de-soldered.

Just to be sure, it could be a good idea to refresh the solder on any parts that get warm like those 7805 regulators.
 
I gone off my solder pump and now I use braid for almost everything. I find some brands of solder braid are much better than others and I'm currently using the Servisol No-Clean Soldamop which seems pretty good (available from Maplin). If your solder braid doesn't seem to wick the solder well try wiping it your flux pen first.

My top tip is; if you get a stubborn bit of old solder that won't melt mix in some fresh solder first, it works wonders.

Thanks for the tip on retouching the regs.

The postie has just delivered an original Sony remote control for it which I found on eBay. Excellent!
 
I've just finished my 'stage 1' mods on the Sony 227ESD.

Here's list of what's been done:
  • Bit decoupling caps on the MSB pins swapped from 100nF to 470nF Wima MKS2
  • Electrolytic decoupling caps for the -5v and +5v supplies to the TDA1541A chips swapped from Elna Duorex 220uF to Silmic II 220uF
  • -15v and +15v supply decoupling caps (op amps and DACs) swapped from 47uF Duorex to 100uF Silmic II
  • DEM oscillator caps swapped from 470pF axial ceramic to 560pF Wima FKP
  • DEM oscillator stabilisation circuit as per EC Designs on DIY audio (6K8 resistors to -15v pin)
  • Main smoothing caps for analogue section swapped to 5,600uF Panasonic FC from 3,300uF Duorex
  • Output coupling caps swapped from 22uF Duorex to 10uF Wima XL MKS2 (thanks Martin)
  • DIY performance +5v reg for the CXD1144P filter chip (replaced 7805)
  • Both DAC chips upgraded from R1 spec to 1998 TDA1541A
  • Rubber ring added around the crystal oscillator can
I wanted to socket the DAC chips but the row pitch is slightly wider than standard, presumably to make the DAC chips easier to fit, so the DACs have been soldered in.

I have also now got an original remote for it sourced from eBay.







Next up is the controversial issue of op amps and the associated circuitry.

Oh, and if anyone fancies joining the fun there's another one on ebay right now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-CDP-...789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20fc2123ed
 
A few updates.....

I've added a 15uF Oscon SP under each DAC chip from -15v (pin 15) to -5v (pins 26/27). I did this mod on the Arcam and thought it made a noticeable improvement. The two 6K8 resistors I'd previously added from each leg of the DEM oscillator cap were getting in the way (too many things on pin15) so these have been removed for now.

As standard the op-amps power supply pins are decoupled to ground with only electrolytic caps with no film or ceramic bypasses! Since I want upgrade the op-amps I thought it would be prudent to try and improve the decoupling arrangement. At pin 4 the electrolytics are just 1uF which seems a much lower value than I'd normally expect to see so I've upped this to 22uF. I've also added small SMD PPS film bypass caps between the legs of the electrolytics.

A pair of high quality op-amp sockets have been fitted and I've bought some LM4562 and OPA2604 op-amps to try.



 
You don't mention any differences in sound after doing these mods? Maybe I need to read Arcam thread first?
Something I recognised about the smoothness of sound, I have a Nakamichi cdp2 that had overly smooth sound and bass was just air no tone. After resoldering all regulators (cracked solderjoints all of them except the only one with heatsink in my Nak) most of overly smoothness is gone, maybe even little too bright/flat sometimes and bass got colour/tone now but really a little too weak. So would replacing the msb decoupling for these 0.47uF Wima's help bass or should I include increasing capacity PSU capacitors ? You never had too large inrush current because of larger value capacitors ?
 
I've learnt that it takes a while to really get to grips with any sonic changes after mods have been done, weeks rather than hours which is why I hadn't posted with any post modding listening impressions yet. I wouldn't normally make so many changes at once but most of the alterations I've done have been well tried and tested on my Arcam players previously and I was pretty confident they'd be steps in the right direction.

Changing the op-amps from the JRC5532 to LM4562 has taken away a lot of the excessive smoothness in my Sony and added much more clarity bringing it closer to the sound of the Arcam. Op-amp swaps need a bit of careful consideration as sometimes the new op-amps won't be stable in circuit.

I couldn't find much info on the Nakaminchi cdp2. If you start a new thread with some decent pictures I'll try to help with suggested mods.
 
OK, the bad contacts on 7805/7905/7815/79115 regulators was day and night difference, completely different player now. I think I better wait a little befor starting own thread, I just joined here. I think about it a little more, I have started reading Arcam thread :) Basicly the Nakamichi is player like the Sony, same dac same chips befor dac, just a single tda1541 (without the A here), single 5532 per channel after, like the Sony.
 
Last night I enjoyed some quality listening time with the Sony and I'm seriously impressed.

Although I'm hesitant to admit it, I think it actually betters my Alpha 5 in some areas and only looses out marginally to the Arcam in the bass department.

It's not all good news as last night it needed a couple of attempts to read the TOC on a few discs :( I hope it's not a harbinger of doom for the laser as spare laser heads for the Sony KSS-151A exceedingly rare nowadays and fetch nearly £300 if you can find one.
 

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