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SONY ES

Mike P said:
What's wrong with the poorly one? I may be able to help.
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Hi Mike, it's Patrick. I do mean to send my poorly one - it's the one I bought off Taff here - but have never got round to it. It didn't travel so well from Taff. I bought a second one and loved it. My issue is that even though I could post it to you I would need to come and collect and with two small kids that isn't easy.
 
Taff63 said:
Mike P has a 338esd that is upgraded to a very impressive spec and I have a 770ES that he has similarly upgraded to 870+ spec. Its very nice indeed!

My 338esd has received some modest but worthwhile upgrades to good effect and I'm hoping that an audiocom clock upgrade will benefit either my 338esd or a soon-to-arrive X7esd - depending which one I decide to keep.
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Hi Taff, would you mind telling us more of the TA-F770ES upgrades?:)
 
Tigerjones said:
Hi Mike, it's Patrick. I do mean to send my poorly one - it's the one I bought off Taff here - but have never got round to it. It didn't travel so well from Taff. I bought a second one and loved it. My issue is that even though I could post it to you I would need to come and collect and with two small kids that isn't easy.
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Sorry Patrick, I do remember chatting to you previously about it now. If you can get it to me I'm very happy to take a look at it for you.

Taff has just bought a faulty but fixable X7ESD from Finland which he'll be sending my way shortly. The X7ESD uses the same Burr Brown PCM58 DAC chips as the 338 but has absolutely lavish build quality along the lines of the 555ESD. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it.
 
Thanks, Mike. I'll get on to it.

There's a 555 on ebay at the moment, watching to see how much it goes for although I don't need 3 Sony CD players, well not really.
 
Tarzan said:
Hi Taff, would you mind telling us more of the TA-F770ES upgrades?:)
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Taff's 770 used to be mine. He PX'd with me against a standard one which I've now got in my system awaiting the same treatment as Taff's.

His unit has been fully recapped using what I considered to be the best available parts 'like for like' parts. All of the smaller electrolytic caps are now either Elna Silmic or Nichicon Muse. The two big 8200uF caps are now Nichicon KG and the two massive cans are Epcos Sikorel.

The higher model 870ES uses up-specced /larger capacitors in key areas and I have upgraded Taff's 770 to 870 specification or better. For example the two larger electrolytics on the phono stage are 470uF 'standard' quality items in the 770 and 1000uF 'audio' quality in the 870. There are quite a few examples like this.

Another example is the pair of resistors R416/R466 which are 5% tolerance parts in the 770 but 1% tolerance in the 870. In Taff's I hand selected a very closely matched pair of top quality Takman metal film resistors.

In Taff's the four coupling capacitors in the pre-amp have also been upgraded to film caps and the trimmer potentiometers for the DC offset and bias have been replaced with top quality multi-turn items.

They may be more but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

So, in essence Taff's is an 870ES (or better) in a 770ES case.
 
Late to the party on this but I'd heard Mike's amp a few times and it had always impressed. When he loaned it to me it took about 10 seconds of playing music in my system to realise I had to have one! The difference between it and my amp at the time was that big!

Compared to the 'cooking' 770 you just get more of everything the 770 does so well - but refinement, detail and bass are probably the biggest areas of improvement. It really boogies and is one of the most musical amps I've heard at any price - Mike's done a fantastic job building on the stock amp's strengths.

I'm looking forward to the X7 arriving and fingers crossed it'll arrive intact. I just hope it will be as musical and analogue - sounding as the 337 I own which is lovely (another Mike P effort!).
 
Tigerjones said:
Would like to compare a 337 with my 338.
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It's very close indeed but the 337 shaded it for me with a more 'analogue ' presentation. Mike reckons it sounds 'less hifi and more real' which is a good description. Mine isn't stock and Mike's is a pretty serious 'cost no object' exercise which catapults it into pretty rarefied territory. I'm in Sheffield if you want a listen.
 
Rug Doc said:
Pictures are seriously lacking in this thread!!
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Agreed!

OK, I'll volunteer some pics:

Internal view of my CDP-333ESD. BU-1C laser, TDA1541 DAC chip. Fully recapped and lightly modified.

20180301_190614 by Michael Pickwell, on Flickr

Internal view of a completely standard CDP-337ESD. KSS-190a laser in Gibraltar chassis. Twin TDA1541 DAC chips (sometimes 'A' sometimes non 'A'). Taff has an early 337 with a very slightly different circuit layout in the analogue section.

20160426_090305 by Michael Pickwell, on Flickr
 
Some pics of my totally standard CDP 338ESD:-

Checkout the copper busbars for power, cool as you like!

y4mxLuhMTSqnWajP3bavRy5qrFKTE8qkEjWnbkdE_3cR5062h325tsHlmemCZ17ZFZHW7goZMYNf9mWGooqpT-3vwrB8iVEWWJp6JUmN9f8qXPNIGtu-_LwdDGWj3gW9tMixJwtXNEjznB_IIvNxylIDJU9uE5Ivw1AfSIcFEPKv6LuW3a1bn8GBZx_-d9iIpWjQ3JFdYbMNZ3KJ6BmZ6d-VQ


y4mJOoiJjj5PuhbwoCxzCP8Hc0oAd-GqsiXoZlYhUZdOulDdXav1eBfrR_zlEuUmdWG_2jUv7nVs99bYmw8zi0iuwz5gXNi9U3-I0hMORG_ajh4zdoKVYVrIclcDda6z2vr8m4T9OybazP1rRUTWNSmF_hPZ3hiYCp1UhJ3s2DNavOsgpy5KEjINSodV2XyTWp7zb6iot28hnmawULLXh3Z9w


y4m0naOthyjBbvMom-BmZ1-p0OKhKFmD8-qdvTIWod822pwTP_VBsRIme45yhj-a7QwO4b8hmeP-LvLmobeTqGA8dwybElNnAeYA_vAYnzLCtVo-DKh3kIdnbLSb8HyPFVj6cOer4ibmzgIwjvuwgk82MSoiGzODPXNpSItKYKGArE5PFwYn6sFGiicFEoFXX5-vDorJAih4jMDRe6DpQfyBw
 
Tigerjones said:
What speakers are you using, Mike?
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I've got a pair of Mk1 Tannoy Ardens and also a pair of Monitor Gold 15" in oversized Lancaster style corner cabs.

The Tannoys are a relatively recent move and a departure from my longstanding obsession with big transmission line speakers.
 
Well Taff's X7ESD arrived with me yesterday refusing the power up. A new power cord and mains plug later it was powering on fine but had a dead variable/headphone output which turned out to be a severed cable.

With new belts and a quick service it's now in my rack getting a good test. I've a few more parts arriving for it over the next couple of days and then it'll be going to its new home.

The build quality is absolutely amazing!

I won't spoil Taff's fun by giving you a full review but suffice to say that it's right up there with the best I've ever heard (and so it should be!).

I've also acquired another four CDP's for myself (shhh don't tell my wife) and will report back with updates in due course.
 
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