Steve M Posted September 7, 2012 Posted September 7, 2012 (edited) Item: Pseudo Killerdac+Zen Transport; Philips TDA1541 S2 Double Crown Chip; Marantz CD-50 with I2S; Zenelectro Clock with Battery Power Supply; plus another spare good condition Marantz CD50 as a back up. Location: Perth, WA Price: $3,200 ono (can split DAC $2200 and Transport $1000 if I need to) Item Condition: Good Reason for selling: As usual, got too much stuff. Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, COD Only Extra Info: See below Pictures: See below Hi All, This is probably one of those audio decisions that I will regret later ... I am offering for sale a rather unique CD Player + DA Converter combination as described above. The project started life as an Audiocentric Scott Thompson Philips TDA-1541 D/A converter (RRP $1,800 and bought for about $1,200) and a Marantz CD-50 transport previously modded by Kajak12/Mario on this forum. I then made various further modifications to the dac to try and get it up to Killerdac status by changing or removing resistors and capacitors, including adding the large Ampohm film foil caps in the valve output stage, these are supposedly only second in sound quality to the expensive Duelunds. Most significantly, I engaged the services of Zenelectro (Terry Demol), who is a very competent and knowledgeable Tech on this forum (not to mention a helluva nice guy!). Terry installed valve rectification in the power supply of the dac which involved more transformers, tubes etc including installing other goodies such as expensive Audio Note tantallum resistors. The DAC also comes with a genuine Philips TDA-1541 S2 Double Crown chip - these are getting rare and difficult to track down now and attract $200-500 on Ebay. The asking price of the whole combo is less than what I have committed to the project, so just looking to recover costs somewhat. The end result with the Zenelectro 'killer clock’ and mods ($450 for the clock board alone) with expensive OCXO crystal - is significant. The sonic picture got clearer and more defined, the music timed better and made more sense, lots more expression to vocals, more timbre, depth and weight. This set-up from 16bit/44.1kHz cd replay was getting very good, so wanting to push the boundaries a bit further, I then picked Zenelectro's/Mario's collective brains in order to implement I2S connection between the DAC and Transport. Anyway, what it involved was bypassing the signal away from the receiver chip in the DAC and making some direct chip-to-chip connections for Word-Clock-Data and the ground plane, while keeping the flying leads as short as possible ...and voila! a simple implementation of I2S connection is achieved. I am very happy with the I2S connection as to my ears the music just became more engaging and connected. Hard to describe all of this, but definitely a heart-brain gestalt moment and at last, a CD player with some emotion and a lack of flatness to the sound stage (compared to my beloved vinyl, that is). The I2S connection can also be converted back at any time by simply changing some jumpers (takes 2 minutes), in order to use the dac in standard coaxial/spdif configuration. I am also including a spare Marantz CD-50 player in good working condition, as a back up for spare parts. The TDA1541 dac is probably a similar configuration to what Lansche Plasma Guy (Brian) on this forum is using with his excellent Azurahorn open baffle bass speaker system. I am reasonably confident in saying that the TDA1541 Double Crown + Zen I2S Transport combination is likely to be one of the best Redbook cd players you are ever going to hear. I would prefer local pick-up as this is a rather delicate item and I do not like the idea of it being shook up in transit, but I will transport it at the buyers risk. Regards, Steve. Edited September 8, 2012 by Steve M
braddo Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) Watcha moving to from here for digital? Will you separate the two pieces of gear?? Edited September 8, 2012 by braddo
Gordon Macfarlane Posted September 8, 2012 Posted September 8, 2012 Hi Steve , good luck with the sale though I am suprised to see you selling . G
Steve M Posted September 8, 2012 Author Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) Yes Braddo, can split the pairing if we need to, but it seems a shame to do so. It is unlikely there is a commercial transport out there that can match mine at $1000, the $450 Zen clock in it is VERY special with only three units ever made, combine this with the I2S connection and you've got a real killer transport to match a killer dac. There seems to be quite a of lot interest in these items so would like to see it go to a good home as a pairing, but I would consider splitting them. Regards, Steve. Edited September 8, 2012 by Steve M
Steve M Posted September 15, 2012 Author Posted September 15, 2012 (edited) Thanks for all the enquiries, split up and now SOLD. Donation to be made to SNA when funds come through. Steve. Edited September 15, 2012 by Steve M
wolster Posted September 15, 2012 Posted September 15, 2012 Congrats on the sale. Steve, I am intrigued by those supports under you turntable. Obviously esoteric. Are you able to elaborate?
Steve M Posted September 15, 2012 Author Posted September 15, 2012 Wol, The SP-10 supports work really well, has freed up the sound of the tt significantly. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal what they are as a lot research and time has gone into developing them and I might be infringing intellectual property rights if I were to reveal the technology behind them ;-)) Steve.
THOMO Posted September 15, 2012 Posted September 15, 2012 Wol, The SP-10 supports work really well, has freed up the sound of the tt significantly. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal what they are as a lot research and time has gone into developing them and I might be infringing intellectual property rights if I were to reveal the technology behind them ;-)) Steve. Steve, Made from a sliver of **** stirring paddle.Then gold plated ?
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