Best CD ever owned, Bety musical fue ti HDM better than playeras around 1000~2000 range..better with tube amplification.

Adictivo, can't live with out it

I have to say, I've owned many CD players form the likes of Rotel, Sony, Yamaha, Denon etc. The CD67SE is by far leaps and bounds above anything I've heard! Paired with my B&W 703's it is a match made in heaven and the slightly laid back presentation of the Marantz has tamed the somewhat forward sounding tweeters in my 703's very sweetly. The sound is dynamic yet smooth. Compared to my Marantz SACD/CD player...well there is no comparison to my ears! I'd pick the CD67SE every time and I've tested this many times. Are there "Better" players out there?? Honestly I don't know. I say this because firstly, sound is completely subjective. Second, I think it's true that increased expenditure many times equals diminutive returns with regards to increased performance and many times all you're paying for is R&D costs, exotic materials and veneers etc. many of which have not been proven to improve performance. I simply can't imagine liking another CD player "more"...differently maybe ...but not more. Marantz has been doing their thing for decades and have it down pat IMHO. I think it's funny when people call Marantz "MID-FI" seemingly "only" based on their very reasonable price points. Try this player out "if" you can find one and just enjoy the music... isn't that what it's all about? Cheers!

Build quality, reliability, tape programming features, remote control, and now the sound!

Inability to get a service manual and formerly the sound!

First, let me say I have every CD player I've ever bought except one--my first, the hot-running, heavy, top-loading Sony, which originally sold for over $1000 but was later discounted for $250 as cheaper players came to market. By the way, it sounded like a Sony (duh)--cold and irritating--but it was the first one ever marketed, contrary to the opinions of eBay sellers peddling cheap front-loaders. The 1051D had a cult following for a while--Musical Concepts sold upgrades for it, but it wasn't until last year that I replaced the LM833's in its analog output stage myself with Burr-Brown OPA2604's at the suggestion of a friend (Chuck). The improvement was significant--it's a nice little player, even today. I also have my second player, a plasticky 14-bit Magnavox 1051D, and my third, a Sony CDP-C445 carousel that I now run into an AA DIP and Theta Cobalt DAC which, amazingly enough, sounds pretty good. I say all this to lead up to my experience with the Marantz CD-67SE--my first "real" CD player, or so I thought when I bought it. The only problem was that it, too, sounded like a Sony--cold, hard, and irritating. Only when I turned the volume down, effectively making it into a 14-bit player or worse did it sound acceptable, but then it would forget the setting when I turned it off. All the while I was reading the TNT articles, the modification reviews here, researching the Trichord and LC Clock sites, but never felt that the SE warranted either the time or the expense, especially since by then I had purchased a Cambridge Audio CD4SE that just whipped its butt. Then I stumbled on some information on biasing OPA2604's into Class A that sounded promising, and having liked what they brought to the 1051D even when run normally, I thought it might be time to go back in. I had already installed damping material on the underside of the cover and under the bracing bar per TNT, but that got me squatola. Having some Nichicon MUSE electrolytic caps around, I replaced what looked like semi-critical caps in the output section not already using either Elna Ceraphines or Elna Silmics (both nice parts, and worth keeping), but again no luck. I even removed the copper covers on the HDAM buffer amps, but saw nothing I could work with so back they went. It wasn't until I discovered that the JRC 2114's were pin-compatible with the two extra OPA2604's I had left over

Similar Products Used:

Early Sony top-loader, Magnavox 1051D, CDP-C445, CD4SE, CAL DX-2, Musical Fidelity E-60, DacMagic II Mk2 DAC, MSB Link DAC III, low-end Rotel 940, Pioneer DV-626 DVD player.

mids bass

n/a

After reading the reviews, i figured i would modify my cd67se. The difference was night and day from the previous configuration. I upgraded the op-amps, power-supply capacitors, the clock, and misc caps and resistors around the board. It made a huge difference. i was almost going to buy a new cd player, i'm glad i didnt. if it wasnt for the other posts i wouldnt even have known about the upgrades. thanks guys

Similar Products Used:

n/a

AMP: Modified Luxman L-550 class A
Speakker: Tecnichs Honeycomb disc SB-10
Cable: Taralabs prism


CD67se is a good player, for the money it is excelent, and with a little modification costing around 100 usd it is really flying. Six month ago I contacted LC audio, a small danish firm specializing in high-end development including cd-opgrade`s (www.lcaudio.com). They had designed their own precission clock "lc2" - tested with high acclaim in some of the scandinavian hifi magazines.I decided to give it a shot as I had a feeling the marrantz with its fine electrical "build" could go much higher. Also I had 2 opamps installed - supposedly further removing jitter.

Total cost including installment was 100 usd.

DID IT WORK ?

yes - the minute I plugged it in the difference was imidiatly present - initially I noticed a more clean and dry sound from each instrument/voice but the real benefit was a great improvement in soundstage: each player could really be defined in space and seemed to have more air around.

I can really recomend such opgrade to any cd67SE owner - especially if you have a high quality amp/speaker combination.

Plaese post if you now any other tweaks for the 67

Best Regards, Tom

I use a highly modified Marantz CD67 in a system with Classe electronics, Maggie 3.3 speakers. The interconnect cables are my own bobwire designs. The 67 right out of the box is not bad but with some mod's its Great! Start by replacing ALL the 47uF caps with 1000uF and a .1 bypass. All the capacitors in the power supply should by doubled in value as well. Next, add voltage regulators, for the DAC, digital filter and front end laser unit. All the new regulators should have large capacitors with them. The front-end laser unit can be regulated from the main PC board by removing the resistor that sends power to it. (Located next to the ribbon cable connector.)
The opamp's should be replaced with AD828's all their bypass's should be 1000uF as well as the bypass's in the H-Dam's. Output impedance should be lowered to 100 ohm's total. The coupling caps should be bypassed by film caps.
Remove the opto-coupler from the PC board to reduce noise.
Remember that the signal coming from the laser IS NOT DIGITAL, it's high frequency RF, so treat it like RF and you can make it better. Everyone talk's about jitter, but they think it comes only from the digital circuits. It really starts at the RF from the laser! Go after that area, treat it right, and you can forget the word jitter ever existed! Better grounds help a lot! There are jumpers all over the PC-Board add fat jumpers to those already there. Try bringing the RF from the laser to the main board on a coax cable. I used RG196.
On the laser unit there are some jumpers located on its PC board. If use study the PC layout carefully, you can see how to re-arrange the components to get around some of the PC traces.
Give every IC as much filtering as you can, and you will make it think it's the only IC connected to the power supply, they like that a lot!
What you gain from all this, is a player that will be at home in the best of systems. I've heard mine in systems with Kilo Buck front ends and I left there owners weeping, that they spent so much for so small a difference!

I modified my Marantz CD63SE by replacing the opamps with AD825 opamp modules and the cheap quartz crystal clock oscillator with LClock XO from lcaudio.com. After completing these modifications, I wasn't even sure that the player would even work. After hooking it up and playing my reference CD, I only have to say one thing WOW! The detail, imaging and soundstage improved to an astonishing level (did the actual listening after about 48 hours of burn in). I even compared it side by side with Rotel 991 and Sony SCD-777ES. It beat the Rotel right out, but wasn't up to the level of Sony SCD-777ES. I guess the bit stream technology compared to the PCM did it's job. Before the modification, I was also using the Musical Fidelity X-10D tube buffer stage. Now it is useless, in fact it degrades the overall sound. That shows it goes well with low quality players. I used kimber kable teflon insulated hook up wires. The LClock is mounted under the metal sheet used for cross bracing with rubber isolation pads. This leaves me wondering that of I ever upgrade my CD player, it is going to the Sony SCD-777ES, but then with very limited SACD selection and $2500 price tag, I would rather wait.
My rest of the system:
YBA Integre DT.
Totem Model 1 Signature.
Kimber KCAG interconnects (very short 16 inches).
Audioquest Idigo speaker cable for lows and MIT Terminator 2 for highs (YBA has true bi-wiring with separate hook ups).

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 991, Sony SCD-777ES