Panasonic SW967 Portable CD/MP3 player: Modifying for improved audio fidelity

[headfone]

Here's an image of a portion of this PCDP's guts...

I've already damped the player mechanically (using tack and rope caulk) but have not touched the PCB components (apart from damping the clock and its surrounding caps).

The stock capacitors all seem to be Nichicon or Panasonic's own so I assume they are okay, sonics-wise. This is a very nice-sounding player and quite durable to boot.

Questions:

Would you attempt tweak this player further? If so, what/how?

There is not a lot of room in the chassis to play with. And the SMDs are very small. Anyone have positive experience(s) with replacing components on PDCPs?

Note:

This player does NOT have a dedicated Line Out or SPDIF out. The Owners Manual instructs the user to raise the volume to "13"-"14" (on LCD display) for Line Out use.

Thx for any input you can provide.

 

[jarthel]

I do not think there's much you can do with those portable CDP. I think there low sound quality is inherent to the circuit design and not just parts.

 

[headfone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarthel I think there [sic] low sound quality is inherent to the circuit design and not just parts.

Hmm ... if that's true it may be because the market for the PCDP is losing ground to alternative portable carrier units ... all the R&D efforts are going into iPod/iPod clones.

Having said that -- and all things being equal and NOT having heard all the "better/latest-n-greatest" iPods/iPod clones -- I can say that the best PCDPs (and not necessarily the most-$) -- achieve, in my experience, higher fidelity than an "iPod" running lossless compression.

 

[Andrea]

headfone, I agree...

My Panasonic SL-CT720 PCDP doesn't cease to positively surprise me; and it definitely is better sounding than my brother's Samsung YH-J70 DAP (winner of an EISA Award last year, & pretty good sounding on its own, probably/possibly better than the iPod standard I've heard(?)) playing .wav files.

 

[headfone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrea My Panasonic SL-CT720 PCDP doesn't cease to positively surprise me; and it definitely is better sounding than my brother's Samsung YH-J70 DAP (winner of an EISA Award last year, & pretty good sounding on its own, probably/possibly better than the iPod standard I've heard(?)) playing .wav files.

There were some Aiwa players, over the years, that were rumored to have been pretty good, too. Never hear any personally, so I can't comment any more specifically on those. I can say that my Panasonic is way better than the much-touted (but long-surpassed) Radio Shack CD-3xxx series from the early to mid '90s.

BTW: I noticed in your sig line "Go-Vibe v5 (modified with AD45048, LMH6654 in the ground channel, & 2 Panasonic FM rail caps + 2 tantalum bypass caps)". I also own an Go-Vibe (low-gain). Can you point me to some more info/specifics on your mod for this model? Is there a thread on this forum or HeadWize that outlines/discusses such Go-Vibe mods.

Thx!

 

[headfone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarthel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do not think there's much you can do with those portable CDP. I think there low sound quality is inherent to the circuit design and not just parts.

Disagree here

Otherwise I would not have gone through all this trouble