Hello again.

I do quite a bit of vintage electronic stuff, but have yet to tackle a modern amp or CD player. Other than replacing caps that may have gone bad, what are the options to improve something like the NAD 3020, or Marantz CD63-mkII?

My gut feeling, is that I would be better off building a valve based amp as my first attempt at this, as I have a huge stock of valves and a fairly good understanding of the circuits involved. I would like to try a known good design first.

Anyone been there, done that? I see some ‘kits’ advertised for replacement caps, but I cannot see a point in replacing one that functions and measures well.

  • boofing_evangelistOPBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Fully understand. I will give it a go with my topping dx7s dac as it has optical out. It sounds pretty great as it is to be honest! It is part of my very budget system: tannoy venus mk2, arcam alpha 8 and cd63 mk2. The arcam needed some connections resoldered/replaced, the speakers are very worn on the cabinets, but mechanically great and the CD player needed a new laser mechanism and belt. It came in at under 100 pounds, with the speakers costing just 10 !

    I am stuck with it while I save for a new set of speakers and amp. I have my eyes on jbls with a rotel x7 but will audition when the time comes. I need to sort out portable audio first, as I am currently running a Sony professional tape deck and Chinese iems.

    Thanks for the help.