FS Marantz CD63 MKII- serious modifications

[bronzeage]

Well, the player is now in my possession, very quickly despatched to me by Ian.

It was in lovely condition, and felt pretty weighty - the damping I guess.

Tray movement was slick as you like, so on with the music.

I dug out the nastiest, hashiest recordings I could find. I wasn't expecting them to sound great, but I was pleasantly suprised - a lot of hash and nastiness was either filtered out or just the good bits made better perhaps. Some tracks I could not bear to listen to got a full play through.

So result #1 there

Next, I dug out some recordings I knew had particular properties - deep bass, stereo effects, vocals deep in the mix etc.

Everything sounded as good, if not better, as I could ever remember it, and that old chestnut 'details I hadn't heard before' was more about how I heard the details, as opposed to whether they where there or not.

I kind of stopped thinking about technicalites in many ways, as everything just sound 'right'.

Then I figured it would be good to compare with my other bits and bobs, so sent the digital out to a DAC quite popular on these parts.

Ulp - no contest, Marantz thumped it good and proper. Bit of a man vs boy contest, but I guess the DAC was designed more for computer output.

So next, my former favourite, a Technics SL-P477 (or something like that).

The first track was one that I had yet to hear on the Marantz, and my first reaction was, hey this Technics is sounding better.

But then I quickly switched over to the Marantz and my jaw hit the floor - this was a league above. The clarity of the vocals was immense, the midrange detail much better defined, and a really rich and defined bass. I could make out words that were a bit of a jumble before, but without the artificial and glassy nature of other players that play the 'resolution' card

I have to add that using a good (MCRUS No 5) power chord improved matters quite a bit, but that applied to both CD players. I used the same interconnects to keep everything fair.

So overall, so far, I could not be happier. If there are improvement beyond this, well happy days.

Ian is also a top chap to deal with, and I offer him my congratulations on a job well done !

Now back to the music ...

[UV101]

Nice one and thanks for the really positive comments! If you ever want more doing........lol

These players really do mod well if you do stuff in the right order and can be taken to quite an extreme if you have the desire.
I guess you'll be keeping it then?!?!?!

[bronzeage]

Yes, short of it mechanically failing, this is a keeper. I played some film scores later in the evening, very, very impressive. Scale, power, clarity, blah de blah.

I'll be in touch once my funds build back up to explore further mods

[UV101]

Pretty much any mechanical failure can be repaired on these!!

I have at least 2 spare complete mechs. Any issue is normally totally resolved buy a strip clean and re-grease along with a new drive belt. The Laser mech may still even be in use today (I know its used in a Musical fidlelity player about 4 years ago) and comes complete with the spindle and tracking motor. There is nothing that can be forced!!

Its easily removable too! 3 screws, 3 cables and drawer front off and the complete mech is out!! :-)