Marantz CD63 & CD63 KI Signature Upgrades

[RobbieGong]

I've been aware of upgrades for these CDP's for years now which have recently caught my eye again. I mean the Level 3 upgrade below will cost you a cool £1350 :eek:

Has anyone done any of these or any type of CD player upgrades ? What are the sonic 'improvements' ? What is to be gained with these types of upgrades generally ? do you think they are worth doing ?

Upgrade LEVEL 1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marantz-CD-63-CD-63-KI-SE-CD-Player-Upgrade-Level-1-/270652217818?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_CDPlayerSeparates&hash=item3f042119da

Upgrade LEVEL 2
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marantz-CD-63-CD-63-KI-SE-CD-Player-Upgrade-Level-2-/270652218978?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_CDPlayerSeparates&hash=item3f04211e62

Upgrade LEVEL 3
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marantz-CD-63-CD-63-KI-SE-CD-Player-Upgrade-Level-3-/270652220151?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_CDPlayerSeparates&hash=item3f042122f7

[John]

I did something similar with audiocom on nu-vista years ago transformed the CD player
However if you ever wish to resale having the mods will not add a lot to the value

[RichB]

Hmmmm for a few dollars more you could have one of those nice new Rega Saturn-R jobbies...

I actually have a bog standard CD63SE and after sorting out the sticky transport it does fine service as a transport to my DAC, the thing which concerns me most about the upgrades is the lack of attention to the the transport. Mine benefitted hugely from a clean up and a bit of dampening.

Cant see why one would spend that money and not get any extra inputs etc for it.

[Dauntless]

I saw a review on Hi-Fi World a few years back on a £300 Cambridge Audio machine that was treated to various upgrades from Clock to caps with this company. The reviewer was very positive of the outcome. He himself had a Naim machine ( entry level I think ) and wrote that the upgrade put the Cambridge well North of the Naim machine sound quality wise. He expressed surprise at the result. If these Ebay machines are new it might not be too bad a deal. One thing to check is Laser availability though. If the laser needs replacement and none are available then it's money lost!

[RobbieGong]

I saw a review on Hi-Fi World a few years back on a £300 Cambridge Audio machine that was treated to various upgrades from Clock to caps with this company. The reviewer was very positive of the outcome. He himself had a Naim machine ( entry level I think ) and wrote that the upgrade put the Cambridge well North of the Naim machine sound quality wise. He expressed surprise at the result. If these Ebay machines are new it might not be too bad a deal. One thing to check is Laser availability though. If the laser needs replacement and none are available then it's money lost!

Thanks Michael that's useful as I'm curious about cd upgrades in general really and know that upgrades to the CD63 have been done. I just wouldn't have a clue what was worth doing. An earlier post talks about addressing the transport area as way to go. Incidentally the upgrades on eBay do not include a new machine. The idea is you send your player to them and they then apply the upgrades and return.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Rob,

You really do need to visit DIYAUDIO.COM and do a search for mods to the CD63 you'll find probably the longest EVER thread to grace a hifi forum with regards modding a CD player. Good luck!

A

[istari_knight]

If you're into DIY and can do the mods yourself it can be fun to play but having been there, done that & got the t-shirt I would honestly put the money towards a better CD player... A modded CD63 full of bling parts might sound alright but its still a biscuit tin with a plastic disc tray.

[DSJR]

The MAIN issue now with these players is that they're VERY OLD and in stock form, hideously jitter prone, assuming you think jitter is an issue of course :) FFS, a clamshell Rega Planet ate them alive I remember, as did the better Arcams of the period (Alpha 9, 7se, 8se etc...) and I haven't even mentioned the c2000 Rotels yet either!

[Dauntless]

Thanks Michael that's useful as I'm curious about cd upgrades in general really and know that upgrades to the CD63 have been done. I just wouldn't have a clue what was worth doing. An earlier post talks about addressing the transport area as way to go. Incidentally the upgrades on eBay do not include a new machine. The idea is you send your player to them and they then apply the upgrades and return.
Robert, I wasn't sure if the upgrade included the machine, thanks for pointing that out. I myself use a separate transport and Dac. One suggestion would be to look at the new Beresford Dac ( Bushmaster 2 ) and use a separate transport. Several people on AOS have been very positive about this product. You could get a Bushmaster and transport for inside the cost of the CDP upgrade.

[RichB]

Mine does good service as a transport to my DAC and was a bargain given I paid nowt for it:lol:

However its not the last word in refinement and when we paired it with some avondale inspired pre-power amps at a recent bake off it was shown for it was, warts n all. If it died tomorrow I'd be shopping for some other steady and better engineered transport instead.

[337alant]

Don't waist that sort of money on any CD player, they are history and digital playback kicks them in to touch IMO
I have a CD63KI Sig and my Cam Azur 640C mk2 kicked its ar*e so yes its sweet but its just to old hat to throw that sort of money at it.
Also its vam cdm12.1 is nothing more than a £25 transport so also nothing special IMO
Sell it and move on is my advice, I gave mine to my eldest son ;)


Alan

[walpurgis]

CD replay can be superb if you go about it the right way.

[RobbieGong]

I was just curious as to what these upgrades are about and what they bring to the table so thanks for the posts guys. I plan some big changes over the next few years but I'm dreaming really as funds just aint there. When good fortune does smile down upon me, the cdp will probably be the last piece to upgrade (as I'm a vinyl junkie), at which point I'd seek the forums view on what they regard as genuinely top notch cdp upgrade to the 63KI, new or vintage at not daft money :)

[lovejoy]

I picked up an entry level Marantz a couple of years ago at a car boot sale for £7. It skipped and was pretty battered but I took it on as a bit of a project and restored and bettered it over a period of a couple of months as time allowed. It was never the last word in detail or insight, but it was a very musical and rhythmic sounding player and was a joy to listen to. The circuit board itself was the same as the KI signature, just populated with cheaper/less components and of course the chassis didn't have all of the extra bracing of the KI sig.

I set about improving things like decoupling power supplies, adding extra filtering and upgrading capacitors and regulators to start off with. Much the same as what Fidelity Audio albeit using well specced but not the boutique components that they use. It was the improvements to the regulators and splitting analogue and digital power supplies that really made the differences. The gains mostly being drops in the noise floor giving greater depth and insight into the music. The general character remained the same (which was a good thing) but you just got closer to the performance with every upgrade.

Just as a guide though, I spent no more than around £40 on components in total, that was including a roll of bitumen damping material which I used inside the case, so the commercial modifications seem astronomically expensive to me for much the same thing and just getting someone else to do it for you.

I'm not exactly a soldering master but I enjoyed doing the mods and the CD player board is a pretty easy one to work with as there is little in the way of surface mount components, so if you have any soldering skills at all, then you'll be able to take on things like adding mains filters and replacing caps with bigger/better quality ones. From experience, if you're going to stick with the Marantz then better to make some internal mods than to add a DAC as the digital output isn't really up to much (unless you start modding that as well).

[syzygy]

The best upgrade that I have made for my cd67se was to purchase a Peachtree dac-it. That is my 1st move into the 21st century.