Yamaha CDX397 Powered by a brilliant CS4392 completely tweaked to discrete out BF245 + 2SK30 .......a step toward the beauty!!!!

Introduction to this  Cd player : 

........to tell the true this is not a bad Cd Player neither a good sounding device, before the modification.

I've tried a former mod. swapping the original opamp with a pair of OPA2132 with a nice improvement over the original NJM2068 that sounded muddy dark and uninvolving....

...not completely satisfied with that I swapped those opa for a pair of  TLE2082 and for many ways there was even more improvement but with the time I found them fatiguing  so I went for a totally different solution : a dedicated discrete component project .

Here you are the original one inside....

...the elegant front panel of this outstanding  yamaha

The very nice dsplay with text information.........great fun!!

the big washer heaving the spindle.....think it works very good

...shielded little O.F. copper cable stole the balanced signal directly from CS4392

Fet's supply feed stolen from power supply, throught a NJM7812

a well pimped up power supply ....totally recapped!!!

...on my prototipe board you can notice on the left side the row of BF245 , a pair for each channel  turning the signal from balanced to unbalanced ,toward the amplification stage cared by outstanding toshiba jfet 

...many coupling capacitors .....I can't do without in this project ! 

...the final result!!!

...the schematic

Before the mod it was an average sounding player , but became great indeed after this mod. !!!!

The inside chip CS4392 by Cyrrus Logic worth indeed!!!

Better forget the original NJM2068 , they sounds awfull.........but forget any kind of op-amp , noone of them equals a well done fet discrete output!!

I achieved a great result with the discrete output maybe just a tad below the tube output!

Fet shows to be real the closest solution to vacuum output stage.... so close to tube sound but not exactly pair, I would say a tad more dry , but for sure fet are over opamp...that's sure!!!!!

Now sound is much better than every opamp I tried , I mean more organic,more analogical, sounds and piano are simply natural and all instrument takes their places in the scene!!

........and like every kind of music like its instrument , every electrical device likes its kind of music ......this is simply delicios with some instrumental acoustic music.


Actually this is one of the best result of my bunch but when I need to listen Classical music then I go for tube....but if you are a tad toward the blue and your ear needs a bit of freshness and musical microdetail go for the fet....chose CS4392 with fet!!!!

see also another oustanding job with "discrete output" :

http://maoaudiolab.blogspot.it/2015/10/marantz-cd40-added-dedicated-discrete.html