Sony Playstation 1.

[Yomanze]

Stock, the PS1 is really nothing special and has some serious flaws with regard to audio. The output stage causes treble roll-off, sounds relatively shit and needs to be bypassed. I followed http://dogbreath.de/ and used cat5 wire. I also replaced some power supply caps.

The SMPS is also a big problem, as it WILL add a haze to the sound and generate considerable amounts of noise. It's also worryingly close to the CD transport, so does need to be put into an external box. When I've got the time, I'll add a linear regulated supply to mine.

When looking at the PS1's circuitry and attention to grounding (it's actually pretty well built), at the heart of it is a transport designed for low jitter performance for 32bit 3D games, so the clock distribution circuit is way overkill and is something not seen on regular CDPs. The timing of this player is ridiculous, with an obvious flaw with mine in regard to bass depth and weight.

There is a consensus that it's the transport side of things that gives the PS1 good sound, not the DAC per se. I do think there's a reason these players have found their way into a variety of high end setups, have a big following in Germany and are popular with DIYers.

Different horses for different courses I guess. I'd be happy to send mine onto someone after I've fitted an outboard power supply.

[Marco]

Good post, Yomanze - very informative. The question I would ask though is it really worth all that effort to end up with a glorified piece of mass-produced plastic, particularly when loads of good quality CDPs from renowned manufacturers are available on Ebay for next to nothing? And how much is spent during the modifying process you've just detailed?

Marco.

[Yomanze]

Hi Marco, only if you're a DIYer :P I think for £50 parts, you could turn a Sony PS1 into something special. It wasn't designed to be a CD player and there are things that do need to be done to bring it onto a HiFi level. The work could be done if a weekend was put aside no probs. No more work involved than taking a commercial model from a renowned manufacturer & ripping the power supply and output stage out anyway

[Phil Bishop]

The Net Audio Sonance also uses that 1716 chip (I also have one of those on loan from a friend) , its pretty much maxed out but tbh I find any unit using this chip to have the typical digital signature and a really lousy midrange
Stick in the diy dac unit using the TDA1541A S2 and it knocks you onto your backside

Leo, Can you elaborate on the DIY DAC using TDA1541? Thanks, Phil.

[leo]

I'm having problems with the PC so apologies for slow responses

The dac is Pedja's last diy design before he went commercial, you can see some pics of it on the diy section.
I added a few extra tweaks here and there on it, it was supplied as a bare pcb, I had to source the parts including the dac chip, I was lucky to find a TDA1541A S2 for a very good price, I've not seen any of these chips since, theres also a lot of fakes floating about

The AYAII and The Model he sells now is not the same as the one I use although I have heard the AYAII and thought it was a nice dac tbh