Turning the "Rigid Disc Clampling Mechanism"s

I've got a TEAC VRDS-T1, ................ and I think it's awful.

That sums it up, please read on as to discover why.........

Well............the word turgid could have been invented for it. It has a few Wadia qualities, but it only seems to run at half speed (subjectively of course), it's not exciting or interesting to listen too either, in fact it's miserable and it doesn't flow either. It's so bad I've picked up the basic stock Marantz CD67SE from the Wales system to do transport duties while we investigate what the dickens is wrong with it. I don't think it has a fault as such just a different outlook. It had more body and texture than the previous Alpha 8 that was doing transport duties, and it's organic, but dance music seems to be wading through treacle, and even Peter Tosh seems to have been at the bong too long.

The thinking is it's Power Supply problems and the need of a proper clock at the root of the problem. These things I will be addressing with WM's help. A Trichord 500VA Power block makes a useful improvement on the TEAC regards flow, and makes it possible to listen to it without being irritated, and our top digi interconnect makes a useful input regards drive, again saving the music, but nothing else works. These are the only two things that can bring towards approaching the level of enjoyment the Alpha 8 cdp allowed.

All the mains leads and upsamplers and all sorts don't seem to be able to help it on their own. Desperate soldering iron wielding is required it seems.

Interestingly the TEAC's failings irritate me more than they do WM, which I think shows the difference in our tastes. We can both hear and describe the same problems, but the significance and impact of these faults impact our listening pleasure to different degress it seems. Having said that, he too is a fan of flow, but he doesn't seem to share my level of dismay when trying to listen to it. I would have canned it already by now, but WM thinks he can hear a decent transport struggling to get out, and judging by the magic his own massaged Wadia produces, I'm placing my confidence in him..... time will tell.

Otherwise, step this way for a cheap TEAC, for enjoying rrreeellaaaxxxxiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggg music (ish)......... you know... relaxing happy hardcore .... yes it can do that.... no joke. Just the thing for taming cold hard aggressive DAC 64's no doubt

:duck:

Cheers

 

I understand your dilema, the Denon I picked up cheap second hand really sounded dull and lifeless, with little soundstaging. Forthebestpart of two years thing has acted as a test bed for mods and tweaks, but has now with the inclusion of a Net audio miniclock has suddenly shown its true potential. I now easily out performs the Quad77 bus [unmodded at present !] which was reasonably well regarded player at £1k.

I've highlighted the mods I've made on the Diy section so I'm not going to repeat them, sufice to say that swapping the diodes could be a very cost effective move, followed by the reclocking, then swap the opamps for say opa 2064's biased to class A.

The Teac by all acounts has a very good mechanism , which has been used to good effect by several well known companies. So don't dispair get modding and the thing may suprise you !

 

Hmm....interesting you should mention the T1...as I'm bidding on one on eBay at the moment

My aging Marantz CD50SE with Trichord DOB is doing very well and together with my recently accquired DAC64 it's doing an amazing job. Combined with one of your balanced "Liberator" cables the sound was nothing short of stunning, even with my LAT DI-20 it's not bad.

However, I feel the Marantz is not much longer for this earth so I needed something to replace it. Enter the T1. Haven't definitely got it yet but if I do I'll let you know how it works out with the DAC64 compared to my modded Marantz. There's no question that it's going to get the Trichord Clock4 and neverconnect PSU treatement though after which I can't really see it being anything other than a superb transport. I think WM's faith is justified

Michael.

 

I've ordered my gloves and gown, surgery starts 9am monday morning day :saw: WM

 

Tony - what "surgical procedures" are you planning?

Clock 4 and Never Connect? ....or some WM specials?

Michael.

 

:ffrc: :ffrc:

Thanks, that vison has just livened up my afternoon. Can just see it now........WM clobbered up, buried head in his 'trick' kit, mercilessly operating on the TEAC with globules of silver solder splatting against the walls and torn shards of metal and ***** wire flung over the shoulders, while Timpy waits anxiously outside with a mug of tea and a digestive.

Sorry, i'm easily amused.

Have you ever been allowed to operate on a speaker , or would it cause Timpy too much distress. Or are they just museum pieces now, dug out intermittently for a good ole' beez wax.

 

Well, I've been into speakers on more than one occation actually this afternoon, some of mine are undergoing 'Slight reconstructive surgery'
Well, I have some new 'Items of foo foo dust' I've been playing with lately, and these will first be used, although one thing is patently clear with the Teac very medicore internal PSU and segregation, plus a captive lead that'll be there for at least 3 mins after case removal
If you lot are good, we capture the whole thing on video, anfd release it, 'I've powered about with Teac's' on the 'T' shirts, and best of 'uncensored' moments, plus a follow up series 'Adventures in Digital square wave land'
Seriously, we'll be doing one thing at a time, and giving you the low down on what effect 'x' and 'y' had (I know, but poor Timpy is having deep phycological Tramus today, He's buying an Rover 825 diesel ) ) so please be gentle with him WM

 

Oh My

I though Timpy was a Vauxhall man! What happened? Maybe it's the heat:Lplates:

 

No Robbo, he's just 'Disturbed' :crazy: WM

 

Rover 800 bad enough, but DIESEL? The man is beyond help...

Will be interesting to hear what, if anything, makes the TEAC work well...

 

Hopefully the TEAC isn't though I've every confidence.

As for the 825 (SLD to be precise), the jury is out, and I haven't bought it..... yet...... I'm tempted to buy it now just to see the look on WM's face

Cheers

 

tim,
an omega diesel is a much better bet than a rover... also some resonance there too...
cheers


julian

 

Hi Isaac,

Nowadays it pays to be cautious about slagging off diesels with the latest generation of direct injection models around. Many of them can waste the equivalent size petrol engines.

For example the Mercedes E320CDi has 204 bhp with a whopping 500nm torque from 1800 rpm! it does 0-60 in 7.7 seconds with a top speed of over 150 mph. You also get over 40 mpg.

Most cars that go head to head with this car especially in mid range overtaking will lose badly.

And I havent even mentioned the new 4.3 litre diesel engine

The rover 800 is still a dog though.


Cheers, Robbo

 

Intresting though dirty diesels may be they are/wern't HiFi the last time I looked ! is it too much to ask people to stay within the bounds of the thread ?

Now I say this part tongue in cheek, coz I've been as guilty as the next person. I'd much rather talk about the Teac mods, as they are in area where I've devoted a lot of time and energy. It may be I can offer some useful advice or be able to learn from the changes to be made by the protagonist. But lets put the benzene burners in there garage and play with the big boys toys [tic].

 

I do believe that clock-mod upgrades are very popular with owners of (OEM) TEAC CDPs and CDTs, and said machines are supposed to respond very positively. I suppose you couldn't compare an OEM TEAC to a Wadia seeing as Wadia breath over the power supply and other bits when they take a basic VRDS and put it into one of their own transports.

I didn't think the TEAC/TAG combo sounded that turgid when I last heard it, but then I may have changed my mind had we directly been able to compare this combo against the Arcam dong the duties at the helm instead.

I'd have thought the VRDS transport would have injected some adrenalin into the inoffensive TAG. But then that's basing my opinions on what Wadia's do, having not had any experiences with OEM TEACs.