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Nakamichi CD Player 3 - How do I make it useful?

Hello all,

Abstract:

Scored a *very* clean Nakamichi CD Player 3 at a thrift store for $25. Normally that'd be a bit high for an 'as-is' purchase, but this player is exceptionally clean, has no scratches anywhere on the case, and included the remote. It's a 6 CD changer, and it has a surprisingly robust transport with really only a tray belt as a weak spot. It will read any burned CD I can feed to it, it has a fairly powerful headphone amp, and it has a very high build quality, aside from a couple of voltage regulators that could really use heat sinks. It has an actual ladder DAC, the Burr Brown PCM1700. It has no digital output.

The Rub:

It sounds like ass. I mean, it's not as harsh as some of the early Sony monstrosities or anything like that, but it has a really bad harshness. The PCM1700 is noted by some to have a bad zero-crossing glitch that may or may not be to blame. Here's the interesting part - the player has MSB adjustments for each channel. If I listen to a passage as it fades out with the factory adjustment, the sound is appallingly dithered sounding. You hear artifacts that sound almost like low-quality MP3. If I adjust the MSB pots fully CCW, the artifacts at fade out disappear completely, but really the overall sound isn't much improved.

Now, I am willing to accept that this DAC might not be the best DAC in the world or be up to modern standards, but can it really be THAT bad, and could the MSB adjust have such a dramatic effect without something else being wrong? The voltages seem to be in order, but I have not dug much further.

I really like this player as a transport or as a player for a spare room, but not if it sounds like this. I need to either figure out a way to improve this thing or perhaps to add a digital output.

Anyone have any experience with this gear, or have any ideas? It's a nifty player and hell, it's a Nak. It would be a shame if it were doomed to sound like complete crap...


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Topic - Nakamichi CD Player 3 - How do I make it useful? - Sherwood Forest 01:35:45 08/30/16 (11)

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