For those who want to save for a better transport, a clone of the Shigaraki transport, look no further. The claim transport using JVC boom box and some mod has results better than the Mark Levinson and the renowned CEC TL0.

Here is the component list

http://tim.cheapo.cc/images/CD%20player%20mods.pdf

This is the famous transport

http://www.sakurasystems.com/products/shigacd.html

Here is the documents to start the mod

JVC RC-EZ31 Manual - dismantling and schematic

Available model for mod

1. RC-EZ 31
2. RC-EZ 32
3. RC-EZ 51

If u check the price, u will find it $$$

but using a cheap JVC boombox, it can be converted



Now here is the picture of the RAW transport torn apart from the JVC Boombox. Pls compare it with the Shigaraki transport.



and here is the results. Time taken for the mod is about 5 hours for beginners. [not the bottom one of course]







here is the story

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread....0229&highlight=

This post has been edited by ccschua: Nov 15 2008, 08:23 AM

CDs are so 90s man

Best results = EAC Rip CD to Computer, output via USB to DAC.

- Little or No jitter
- Fully Buffered
- CRC Error Corrected
- Noise resistant digital feed
- No skipping
- No error from CD damage

I have doubts regarding CD trasport due to physical constraints rather than digital ones.

interesting ! any bulk order ? haha

I have no doubt the digital world has produced bit perfect technology. However, I would love to see one that implement that technology, with common availability and low costs. I could actually use computer or streaming wirelessly to USB port, output USB direct to DAC which support 20ps jitter. At this moment, to support USB with 1 ppm jitter is still not commercialy friendly.

However, to cut that computer chain, I have some time till that technology is common and user-friendly. else I would still stick to the transport.


I manage to hunt around and found quite a few sets of JVC RC-EZ31a lying around. Looks like time to learn some DIY electronics. I need to do this :
1. power supply board.
2. 75 ohm output, spdif/BNC out.
3. Low jitter clock
4. cap mod. Black Gate N, Rubycon.

Components purchased
1. 10 uF x 1
2. 33 uF x 1
3. 4.7 uF x 2
4. 47 uF x 1
5. 10 uF x 1
6. Resistor to be confirmed.
7. Crystal - get PEter help.

This post has been edited by ccschua: Oct 27 2008, 09:57 PM

Running COMPUTER with HiFi is like drinking a juice from an artificial flavor.....soulless and tasteless

Running HiFi with vintage gears is just like drinking a juice fresh from the farms....

I just tried all sorts of sampling using my foobar2k.

overall I dont like the 192khz or the 96khz. it sounds exactly like what u say. If I use the original 44.1khz, also I dont findit any differene with my cheapo dvd player.

However the signal from the transport does have a differece. that's why still I dont see many high tech gadget at the moment.

This shigaclone can beats the CEC TL0 which costs easily RM 5k, not to mention the Mark Levinson 37. > 10k

I followed the diyaudio thread for quite sometime. Interesting!
However, can we get that JVC player here in Malaysia? A friend told me it's about RM180, but I could not recollect if it's available locally or thru 'evilbay' or similar channels..

I just found it again at Jaya Jusco Wangsa Maju yesterday selling at similar price....wasn't hard to find specially for 3rd word country like Malaysia who still in admiring 90's digital fame....

Spend around 100 for other components now you got ur self a hi end transport with a JVC brand...

Very tempting....

A tempting is always driven by meaning.....behind a meaning lies a desire to commit thus you ARE willing to...make your self a Shigaclone transport....hehehe

If I am heading towards that Jusco by next week, then you know lah..

Alternatively go seek this boombox at Mydin Pudu Raya.......near at JP too....hehehe like I said I'm full with 'resource'

It's good to know!

As an alternative to this transport, the Sony Play Station One (PS1) is reputed to be an extraordinary CD player, its sound same with CD players costing up to USD6,000.

I first read about Sony PS1 in Stereophile, a review by Art Duddley and now here: PS1 as CD Player.

Oh yeah. I check the EZ31a at jusco too, and found too many of them. to have the remote at this price is great.

but I hope someone can have a creative solution as to the casing. I roughly have the components fixed up.

---

Added on October 20, 2008, 12:51 amthere are two approaches to HIFI.

the scientific and technology way.

the next way is philosophical.

This post has been edited by ccschua: Oct 20 2008, 12:51 AM

This is my take. The quality of the transport mechanism alone does NOT guarantee it'll outperform higher end CDP's.
The crux of this DIY CDP is the very solid chassis and a custom fabricated clamp for top loading the disc. A solid chassis can be custom fabricated to be most stable and with least resonance than any common cd player chassis which most are anything from tin can to 16G steel chassis framework. Vibration, unstability, chassis resonance can affect the performance greatly and your tweaking of the electronics will be limited. The worse the quality of the chassis, sound quality will be just as bad. As for the cd clamp, most cdp loader clamps are mere moulded metal plastic combination or just light plastic. I'm confident if a budget to mid end CDP is converted from its flimsy plastic front loader to manual top loading. Together with an appropriate weighted clamp, the SQ and imaging can improve by some percentage without anything done elsewhere. This is one of the primary qualities of a high performance CDP.
One fine example is SONY ES series top loading CDP which supply an appropriate metal cd clamp piece as standard. I know someone who gets different clamps made to order and have spent quite a lot of time with different materials, size and own tweaks that affect the SQ to various degrees.
Back to the optical mechanism, me thinks that JVC optic mechanism is no better than the common SONY KSS-213CCM found in many CDP's such as budget to mid priced Marantz, NAD, Cambridge Audio, Rotel, etc.
Some years ago, there was the Philips CDM Pro kit that can also be used to DIY your own CD transport, but the setback was that it was quite and expensive kit, not to mention optional controller and all. I have to admire the chassis example in the picture as a very solid candidate for great performance. I feel it shouldn't be anything lesser if anyone insists on this DIY project.

Anyway, I'll look here once a while to see if anyone can make good here. Good luck guys!.

This post has been edited by bsl555: Oct 20 2008, 02:08 AM

guys, here is the starting point.

Look at the items required for a basic mod.

---

Added on October 20, 2008, 2:25 amsome of guys just switch from PS1 to Shigaclone for the fun of DIY, and it is not complicated.

This post has been edited by ccschua: Oct 20 2008, 02:27 AM


Attached File(s)
 CD_20player_20mods.pdf ( 535.29k ) Number of downloads: 624

It's already implemented, TI, LT and AD have released very good USB to I2S/SPDIF chips recently, the DAC1 USB is a good example of an extremely jitter immune system with the benefits of USB's corrected transmission.

What would you trust to make sure your music gets from point to point without issues, a CD player with a 1mb cache, or a PC such as mine with 8 gigabytes of memory, not inclusive of HDD Buffers and Soundcard ones?

And as a note, i don't recommend using black gates IF they don't fit into the pad. Many dolts use wires for their legs or keep the leads too long, which infact makes the signal path worse than with the old cheapo capacitor. Stretching it a bit is fine, but any longer than half a centimeter is an antenna

You're already taking the sound from a digital source, you're making sure with modern systems that it's getting from point A to point B without any damage of that digital data, data or timing wise. Computers do it so much better if you ask me.

Distortion is never a desired characteristic of digital systems. I'm assuming that you aren't using vinyl

Y.C.,
I have a PS1 at home. even without modding, the audio is darn good!
I have read extensively the thread at diyaudio. Nothing but praised although there are some that does not agree.
There has been a marked increase in value on ebay after the PS1 is known be a good CDP..
I used to see a few being advertised in lelong but no more..

Anyone has done a full blown mods to the PS1?


A survey:

IF I can get someone locally to manufacturer a similar metal chassis like you see above, how many of you would be interested? How much are you willing to pay for such a chassis?
Why am I asking? I have a friend who have a machine shop..



This post has been edited by jazzy939: Oct 20 2008, 09:51 AM

Jazzy,
There is a shop within the complex opposite Nixie in JP selling a brand new PS1 for RM290 together with the games. If it is anything less than RM100 then it might worth the effort to buy it just to play play with mods. Since you already have a PS1, you did not mod your unit? As for me, I would not try to mod either the PS1 or JVC compo into CDP and transport proper; too much hassle for me. I thought PS2 looks much better especially the limited edition silver coloured ones, wonder if its CD playback capability is any good.

Sorry folks, I have gone off topic but don't mean to hijack the thread.