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TDA1541 players

M

matt j

pfm Member
They never cease to amaze me, every time I go back to a decent one they totally trounce everything I've tried replacing them with, so now I've given up and settled for a Marantz CD80.

Anybody have any sort of info on these players? I think it was a good step up from their entry level stuff was it not? it weighs a ton, gets quite warm and has a heat sink on the back so I presume it contains some pretty substantial innards?
 
Gotta love this old DAC chip. My AVI S2000MD DAC also has the S1 version of the chip and it sounds superb :)

Lefty
 
CD80 is a top choice. If I recall correctly: CDM4 TDA1541 S1?

You are very lucky. How much you paid for it?
 
Great machine!

The TDA1541A was a great DAC. Unfortunately they were very expensive to make, so they introduced the much cheaper bitstream crap which led to modern delta sigma DACs and the Super Absolutely Crap Disc.
 
without reeling out the old cliché, its quite vinyl'esque in its sound, but obviously with the positives of CD, no noise etc..

I paid £220 for it, which isn't cheap for an old player I know, but for the money and considering I prefer it to the living room full of about 7 Densen CD players I've got at the minute, its everything I want and some!

as for the transport, its the aluminium CDM1 mk2, I suppose if it goes kaput then my chances of finding a replacement are slim to feck all?!
 
matt j said:
They never cease to amaze me, every time I go back to a decent one they totally trounce everything I've tried replacing them with, so now I've given up and settled for a Marantz CD80.

Anybody have any sort of info on these players? I think it was a good step up from their entry level stuff was it not? it weighs a ton, gets quite warm and has a heat sink on the back so I presume it contains some pretty substantial innards?
Click to expand...

I totally agree!!! I use a CD80 myself and I love it! It's not how KI designed it anymore though as it now has a discrete output stage, flea clock, a few choice caps, some tentlabs regulators and it's also non-oversampling! I gave up trying to get the newer (ish) CD63/CD67's to sound anywhere as good.

For your info it has a SAA7310 Decoder, SAA7220pb digital filter, TDA1451AS1 DAC and a CDM1 mk11 Transport (basically a cast alloy CDM4).

For the purist's out there my player was bought for spares as the transport had died, the belts had perished and the transformer was thought to be blown (it was just the fuse!) I also have a mint standard CD80 and CD94:cool:

Cheers,
Magnus.
 
matt j said:
as for the transport, its the aluminium CDM1 mk2, I suppose if it goes kaput then my chances of finding a replacement are slim to feck all?!
Click to expand...


Hi.

Not necessarily! You can fit the swing arm from the composite CDM4 transport although these are also getting quite rare now.

Cheers,
Magnus.
 
I use a Sugden sdt 1, uses the 1541 as1 and i love it, recently the dac went and they repaired it, including new display as the old was fading, and courier for £109 all in, sounds bloody marvellous
 
This is for sale already due to the unexpected chance of an upgrade on the same lines, only rarer and a damn sight more expensive, so if you know anyone who is after one send them my way ;)
 
I thought the laser pen from the CDM1 was still available? perhaps I'm getting my mechs muddled up again!

My Micro-Seiki CD-M2 is based on the CD94 and still does the business twenty years after I came across this machine (I think my sample was Ricardo's demo unit, in which case it IS twenty years old......). It's still running with a Trichord Clock 2 and sits on a Sicomin support, both of which had a similar level of improvement to the sound.
 
matt j said:
without reeling out the old cliché, its quite vinyl'esque in its sound, but obviously with the positives of CD, no noise etc..

I paid £220 for it, which isn't cheap for an old player I know, but for the money and considering I prefer it to the living room full of about 7 Densen CD players I've got at the minute, its everything I want and some!

as for the transport, its the aluminium CDM1 mk2, I suppose if it goes kaput then my chances of finding a replacement are slim to feck all?!
Click to expand...

Matt, good for you. That is a fair price for this player. If you look after it give it another 5 years I am sure it will double its value. :)
 
I've not heard anything that can touch my (modified) cd75 for any reasonable price, they are great players.
 
I have a Marantz CD12/DA12 very nice!!

I also have the Abbingdon Music Research CD77 which also has the TDA1541
 
just resurrected my naim cd3 that has been lying around.... bloody marvellous. Thought my oppo 980 sounded ok until i A/Bd it with the naim..... Severe case of digititis by comparison, up lifted treble, fake sense of air/space.

The naim needed a good few hours of warm up b4 sounding good though.
 
Some of these old multi-bit players did need a couple of hours at least to fully settle down - mine does - but it's interesting that the AVI player mentioned earlier (along with their long discontinued DAC with the same chipset) seems to come on song quite quickly. I only sold mine because I valued the extra display info on the CD94/CD12 (Marantz) series players. Interesting that Tim de P of EAR fame tweaked an AVI player (audio output chips and fancy caps) and it ended up sounding like a cleaned up Sony 555 (thinner toned, with more apparent "detail" and "HiFi" with it - perfect for an EAR amp though)
 
cubastreet said:
I've not heard anything that can touch my (modified) cd75 for any reasonable price, they are great players.
Click to expand...

Got a couple of CD 75s + I still like them. One was my first bit of bodging and it is truly so - now top loader in a wooden case, bit of a daft idea but it was fun.

Guy
 
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