Effective_audio 0 Report post Posted June 7, 2010 (edited) Dear all, I have done upgrades to ALL Cambrigde Audio Players new and old. Here are Some Samples: D500 CD Player CA640CV1 CD Player CA640CV2 CD Player CA740C (sample 1) CD Player CA740C (sample 2) CD Player CA840C CD Player DAC Magic Scope of Upgrade Generally includes: Essential Package: Change and UPGRADE of all critical Capacitors / diodes / Op-amps. All critical locations are futher bypassed with capacitors. Installation of Burson Clock Installation of separate Customed Wound Transformer for analog power supply Stage. High End Options: Replacement of Burson Clock with EA Ultima Low Jitter Clock and dedicated Power Supply. Change IC Op-amps to Burson Class A discrete Opamps (Best in the world!!) Replace critical supply regulators with Burson Voltage Regulator / Ultima Low noise Regulators. Install Bybee Quantum Purifiers to Power Supply and Output Signal. Do check with us for optimal Upgrades to your Cambridge Audio Gears!! Other Player Upgrades Information Available Here: DAC : http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.ph...54958#msg554958 Players : http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.ph...38260#msg538260 Others : http://www.effectiveaudiomod.com/upgrades_mods_main.shtml Cheers! James www.effectiveaudiomod.com tel : nine694 nine704 email : sales@effectiveaudiomod.com Customers Reviews / Testimonials: --------------------------- Hi James, Here is my brief feedback after 1 week of the modification of Cambridge Audio Azur 640C V1. Prior to the modification, I have quite a few negative comments on the stock player:- 1) Although it is a relatively smooth player, I find that the player is relatively weak in terms of PRAT. It is difficult to get the feet tapping. 2) There is a tendency for the mid high to high frequency to be hard sounding at higher listening levels. 3) Soundstage is rather compressed. It is pretty hard to get the spaces for the individual instruments and vocals. 4) Dynamics are prettly limited too. Overall a forgiving and very smooth sounding player and at times too boring to listen to. After the modification with the burson clock and changes to the critical capacitors/opamp, the following are the improvements:- 1) Generally all aspects of the audio spectrum is improved. My first comment was wow! 2) The smoothness of the player has not changed but PRAT has improved quite a bit and now on certain pieces of music, the feet taps uncontrollably. I would say it is close to analog but not there yet.(What would you expect from a budget player?) 3) The hardness to the mid high to high frequency has almost disappear, however on certain recordings, probably those not so good ones, it still happens at the highest dynamic point. I suspect it could be my humble electronics/ speakers that may be causing the problem. Time to upgrade? 4) Soundstage has open up quite a fair bit, there are plenty of spaces between the instruments now and you could here each of the spaces within the instruments and how much reverb is being used on the instruments/ vocals. The width, depth and height of the soundstage has also improved. The vocalist now stands taller and the instruments are spread wider and deeper in the soundstage. 5) The dynamics has also improved quite a fair bit, when playing a very well recorded piano piece at high volumes, you could very well hear the big contrast between the softest and loudest passage. The soundstage didn’t collapse even at the highest passage. 6) The transparency of the sound has also improved by quite a fair bit, you could hear more of the inner details in the highs, mids and even the mid lows(my bookshelf speakers doesn’t go low). Now you can hear more clearly the plucking of the double bass, the clearing of the saliva on the lips of the singer and also the decay of the instruments and vocals. 7) The overall musicality of the player has also improved. From a boring player, it now becomes a player that has the ability to draw you into music and forget about the hardware. Overall it is well worth the cost even though it is more than half the player cost. I would not say it could beat stock player worth a few thousand dollars but changing from a pretty boring player to a player that has musicality, transparency and dynamics. I think James had done a good job. Jon, on his Cambridge Audio 640CV1 CD Player After Modifications. ---------------------------------------------------- Received my Effective Audio James modded Cambridge CD740c yesterday. The CDP overall become very clean & smooth, darkness, fullness body, bigger headroom. tip top layering & separation. it doesn't sound warm but neutral. Recommended mod if you have 740c. Stanley, on his Cambridge Audio 740C CD Player after modifications. --------------------------------------------- Got my CDP modded by James of http://www.effectiveaudiomod.com/ back this afternoon. It took three days coz he burned it in and tested it before sending it back to me. The first thing that hit me when I played the CDP was how smooth everything was; the highs, the mids, even the bass...all sounded smooth with no harshness at all; tested the Eagles' "Get Over It" from Hell Freezes Over album, which tend to sound a bit harsh on many system...well, listened to this track a couple of times, and no harshness was detected at all. The second thing that I noticed right away was everything seems to sound bigger. So the verdict: this is certainly a bang-for-the-buck mod from just the initial improvements that I detected Earnest, on his Cambridge Audio 740C CD Player after modifications. ------------------------------------------------- James. After the mod every aspect of the player has improved. The PRAT is very good now. There is also much more details. The slight hardness of the sound in the original player is now gone. Thank you very much! Richard’s feedback on his upgrade Cambridge Audio C640 V2 ---------------------------------------------------- Other Customer Reviews and Testimonials: http://effectiveaudiomod.com/Mod_Audio_Test6.htm http://www.effectiveaudiomod.com/mod_test1.shtml Cheers!! James Edited September 25, 2012 by Effective_audio Share this post Link to post Share on other sites