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blu-tacking my Marantz DV-9600

Posted by Joaquin Mejia (A) on February 13, 2007 at 04:55:33

I know some won´t believe what I am saying here, but I am putting it here anyway as I think the benefits are so great and cheap that must be shared. I know I am being somewhat overdetailed, but I wouldn´t if the results had not been so absolutely shocking.

This is not my first tweak. As most innates here, I have experienced in the past quite a good number of improvements to my current rig (as well as the previous ones), and I am experienced in the kind of nice improvements you get improving cables, using better isolation feet (I have finally obtained the best results semi-suspending the player, btw), using tube-rings, cleaning the contacts, etc.

Well, I still can´t believe the quantum leap I have extracted from this player simply by spending an afternoon blue-tacking its inner parts, cleaning it and oiling the pick-up rails. It´s simply unbelievable, the player is totally transformed.

Everything begun some years ago, when applying a goon amount of blue-tack to the motor of my Roksan Xerxes turntable dropped the noise very ostensibly. The sound improved as expected, but certainly was not "transformed". I kept in my memory that noise reduction.

I´ve had the DV9600 universal machine for a year now. It is my 4th universal machine (Philips 963SA, Philips SACD1000 and Pioneer 868/59). In stock form it simply much superior to any of the previous machines. Far better sound than any and noticeably better picture than the Pio (the previous champion in that regard). The sound is detailed (loads of information, I guess thanks to the latest gen CS4398 DAC), good textured, bass is quite powerful and highs clear. Everything is though somewhat congested: the sense of depth is clearly not good enough, you have the impression of a very "busy" soundstage with the instruments almost fighting for their individual breathing space. The sound is better balanced from top to bottom than the previous machines. But the bass, even if better than any of the previous machines (well, about the equal of the SACD1000), is somewhat overblown-muddy specially in the upper bass.

The fact is that about 2 months ago the machine started to fail to read the TOC of a very few CDs (about 3 or 4 out of 250 I tested one evening), ostensibly spinning the discs at very high speed (as if dvds) and then giving up and showing 0:00:00 display as if no disc was inserted. The problem sometimes was usually solved trying a few times, but sometimes not. Somehow I thought that the problem may have some mechanical cause, so I resorted to my almost forgotten Sicomin Evolution II CD mat (it´s a very lightweight mat made of carbon fiber and a soft compliant cotton-like fiber to contact with the disc). I hadn´t used this mat for years. It had always been a good tweak with my old and trusty Philips CD882 transport, but when I tried it with the universal machines the noises were so alarming that it had to be disregarded.
So I decided to try the CD mat with the problematic CDs with the DV9600, et voilá, the TOC reading problem is much diminished. Of the few problematic discs, now all of them can be read at the second try at the latest. But the goods didn´t stopped there: THE SOUND WAS IMPROVED (in a higher increment than I remember it improved the CD882)! Specially the deep bass has more presence and clarity, but the highs are also less grainy. Then I tried the mat with SACDs and DVDs, but no way, the alarming noises show clearly that it can´t be used with them. To sum up, the CD mat makes a nice improvement to the CDs sound with this machine, and also alleviates TOC issues.

After experiencing such good results with the mat, I thought that the mechanical damping of the machine could be worthwile to try, so I decided to blu-tack the lower inner part of the tray. The results were again in the good direction: improved clarity. Then I decided to open the machine and give it a much fuller treatment. The spindle and pick-up parts can be easily accessed removing a black metal top-case. I cleaned the bronze spindle with alcohol, removed lots of dust-debris with the help of an air can and some cotton pipecleaners-earcleaners, and oiled (very very slightly, may be less than a drop per rail) the rails with a very high quality reddish spindle oil supplied by Roksan some years ago for its turntable (it was very apparent at the touch, how this new oil made the sliding movement far easier than before). Then I applied blue-tak extensively to the drive assembly: "legs", sides, and in sum every outer and inner part where it doesn´t interfere with the sliding optical pick-up. Even a few blu-tack went into some plastic parts of the optical pick-up. Once the black top-plate is in its place again, I also blu-tacked it along where it contacts lower case and a few other parts of its surface. Then I also applied it to the analog circuit board (specially where it contacts with the supporting feet), to the top of every capacitator in the front-stereo HDAM, around the output jacks nuts, to the CS4398 DAC used for the front-stereo (simply a little "sausace" of blue-tack, as I don´t want to risk overheating the chip), to the big capacitators in the power supply, to every inner corner of the machine´s case, and to the sides where 4 bolts tight the upper case to the lower.

¿The results? I simply can´t believe it. I regard the change in sound as a 2 or 3 times more expensive machine. Tons of new information have emerged, high frequency info is absolutely mesmerizing (you feel the "air" around instruments, soundstage now is HUGE, the acoustical resonances of the recording room-hall are now breathtakingly apparent. Everything is so much cleaner now, that every instrument jumps simply from the mix and dynamics are explosive. It is obvious that there has been a major lowering in noise, which in turn has resulted in a truly dynamics explosion. Music is MUCH more enjoyable now, as you can hear very clearly the quick changes in level of every intrument. The lows have been finally cleaned, but at the same time are far more powerful and quick, and you can easily follow the contrabass line and the tone-colour of the instrument! The results are consistent with CDs, SACDs and DVDs.

I simply can´t explain why the results are so freakingly good.

Equipment used:
Marantz DV9600 semi-suspended (4 elastic straps + 1 center navcom foot + 2 stones damped with straps on top of the player to level and damp it), Silver Audio interconnects, passive pre with DACT stepped attenuator, Audio Innovations S800 MKIII valve power amp with duende creatura tube-ring dampers, Kimber 8TC speaker cable, BC Acoustique Ganges speakers on top of Atacama spike bases.
Power cord for the player is Supra LoRad. I am also using elastic straps to damp the system´s RCA jacks and bananas (not that I am sure does any benefit, but neither does any harm, and much has been lately claimed about the benefits of damped interconnects or cables).
Discs are cleaned with Shine Ola and treated with Audio Prism Green Light pen.

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