Roksan Kandy CDP tweaks

Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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This is really for posterity. I am often frustrated that I can't find any info / suggestions for MY particular equipment, so I thought just in case there are any Kandy Mk I or Mk II owners out there wishing to upgrade their players I'd post my experience. Note that Mk III has different internals, but the basic rules apply there too.
The Kandy is a really well built machine. The case is non-resonant and heavy, the lid fights like a glove and the faceplate is nice and thick. Inside, the trafo is a toroid, the transport is isloated on brass posts from the chassis, the laser mech is isolated from the rest of the transport on a springy assembly, and the PCB is of high quality. What most impressed me was the plethora of Elna Cerafine caps on the pcb. Most of the caps are Cerafines, and it seems all those in the signal path. Since most makers try to get away with generic caps, I was very pleased to see the Cerafines. No need to upgrade those!
The first upgrade I performed was to replace 6 of the 16 (!) or so 4004 rectifier diodes on the board with Cree 1A 600V 'Zero Recovery' Schottky diodes. These wonderful semiconductors drop the noise floor considerably (as they eliminate any switching noise in the power supply) and let a lot more of the music come through. A major upgrade for a minor price (circa $12). Get the diodes at Parts Connexion or your fav. store. I will eventually replace all the diodes when I get around to ordering more.
Next I dampened the 'bridge' over the CD transport with some dampening material (use you favorite substance here). Not a huge difference, but a few details came shining through that were previously in the background. I also put some dampener below the toriod, just for the sake of thoroughness.
Recently I used some polystyrene 0.01 uf (10000 pf) caps to bypass three of the caps in the power supply and two to replace ceramic caps at the digital out (I use my player as a transport with outboard DAC). Nice improvement here too with an even LOWER noise floor and an expansion of sound stage, horizontal and vertical. Detail has increased a notch too. These again were from PCx.
Next I'm going to try a DIY DC blocker on the mains, before the traffo, to see if that makes a difference.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has tweaked their machine.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

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Topic - Roksan Kandy CDP tweaks - Kamigo 14:37:22 10/09/05 (0)

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