[pburke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportaJoe Hey Pburke thats got to be the most modded tosh yet I just finished the Vinnie mods to go with the Swensons i did earlier and its sounding awesome. Do you have a part # for that iec jack. I would like to do the same to mine.

the jack was left over from an order at a cable place. But Mouser and Digikey both have dozens of them. I think mine is similar to type E:

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/619/679.pdf

You haven't really seen the full extent of the mod yet until that custom chassis is done. Currently a carbon fiber/aluminum construction is what I am mostly interested in, although a few days ago I saw a box of unused Lego blocks that just intrigued me - could you fill blocks with sand or metal shavings before you put them together with super glue? I'll have to digest those ideas some more, but the goal is a chassis that's pretty light, rigid and extremly low in resonance. Shielding as a function of the case is secondary, since I'll use more of the ERS cloth inside the unit.

First I'll need to install another 20 or so caps - I'm going to replace every single one in there

Peter

 

[Jose Garcia]

www.stereophile.com has posted the review of the Simaudio Monn Equinox, in which the Toshiba SD-3950 was "quasi-reviewed" by John Atkinson.

There are just a few notes but , at least, there they are.

regards,

Jose.

 

[Neville]

Yeah I saw that. About time that somebody acknowledged the Toshiba.

 

[Jose Garcia]

He wasn't that enthusiastic as we are about these mighty units, but at least it wasn't that bad !!!

Many inmates at the Asylum went mad about the "review" because he used a stock unit and the comparison was against the Equinox ( $2K). I know someone who sell modified Toshibas who offered one totally modified unit for review but Mr. Atkinson refused due to Stereophiles policy.....

It would it be very interesting if only he can have a totally modified unit

Jose.

 

[Jahn]

I don't know what's going on but for some reason as of yesterday my Tushi started kicking butt. Before it was a very nice unit, best thing in my house. But I noticed some distortion/fuzziness when I pushed it using the cmoy - it was still there when I graduated to the SR-71. Plus there were literal burn smells coming from it lol - might have been them LITERALLY burning something in there, like the caps were being filled with juice or something.

Well anyhow I decided to give it a nice go and let it run constantly overnight. For some reason today it is a beast - with new CDs like "Tragic Kingdom" - No Doubt, to one of my old CD-Rs of Miles Davis on the Fantasy label. Grados are not known for soundstage, but this thing is giving me serious soundstage. On "Night in Tunisia" the tambourine in the first passage sounds like a REAL tambourine - not sibilant at all, and the rattles are coming from behind that upright bass- so woody, so thumpy - bass lovers like me AND jazz lovers have something special going on with a modded 3960. Voodoo, you have a serious product on your hands. WHOA the tambourine just kicked back in - on top of the cymbals, i never noticed it was in that mix... AWESOME. I'm happy with my CD source for a long time to come!

 

[Voodoochile]

That smell does not sound comforting at ALL Jahn! Of course the player was not even close to being burnt in when you got it (no pun intended), so the improvement is only sort of surprising. Glad it is so pronounced though!

As for caps, anything replaced was replaced with higher-rated parts than what was removed, so I don't think you have any cap trouble. You might pull the cover off and take a look-see just to be sure something else is nto going on. The ceramic fuse installed is even the same rating (of course) as the one it replaced. It may just have been some residual material from the original manufacturing perhaps- was this the first time it was on for an extended period? I left it on overnight a few times without anything unusual happening.

Sounds pretty nice though. Has the smell subsided- was it temporary?

 

[Jahn]

Hmm, I'm not sure how to describe it - it doesn't smell like a kitchen fire, or even when i put an opamp in my old cmoy in backwards and the thing started to fry. It smells more like, hmm...your computer when you first get it and the whole thing winds up if that makes sense. Plus it ran pretty hot the first few days - the top was definitely not cool, and it baked anything on top of it. Now the top is not as hot, but anything put on top of it still feels like it gets a bit of ambient heat. Instead of putting the Solo on top of it I think I'll stack my turntable on it with the Pandafeet sorbothane legs separating them, that might help.

But yep the burn smell and the heat are mostly all gone now - it never affected the sound from what I remember, but it is odd that the improvement in sound sort of corresponded with the disappearance of the smell/heat lol. Ah well, I'm happy! Plus just to be sure i think I'll run it nonstop for 3 days straight this time just to be certain everything is all locked in inside there.

 

[rsaavedra]

Haven't verified this yet, but according to this post in Audioasylum, Stereophile now lists the Toshiba 3950 as a class D component in their CD Transport section:

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/dig...ges/93092.html

 

[Jahn]

i guess getting rated at all is a good thing, but D? isn't A the best? and what about this benchmark dac business - the 3950 has a digital audio out? ah...it doesn't have optical or toslink out, but it does have digital out. I wonder if i got a dac and a digital cable, if this would sound better than the swenson mod analog outs...

 

[rsaavedra]

Well, remember they audition only stock units, it's a stock 3950 that got that rating. They won't audition a modded one because of magazine policies. I think it's great a stock unit so inexpensive ends up in their list. Pretty sure that's most likely the cheapest source component in the history of their list.

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn Plus it ran pretty hot the first few days - the top was definitely not cool, and it baked anything on top of it. Now the top is not as hot,

You know the temperature in the city has dropped in the last few weeks

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan You know the temperature in the city has dropped in the last few weeks

oh, that's it! i'm building in a square wave function in the Tushi - one press of the button and i'll fry your K1000s!

but seriously, I know there was something you didn't like about my 3960 when you first heard it, so i think i'll keep it on non-stop burn in to get it ready. as voodoo said, it probably wasn't close to being burned in when I first brought it to the qualia store, and imho the sound has improved since. plus i'm going to load the deck by bringing CDs that I know sound good with it, even when using the SR71 as the amp driving it

.

 

[pburke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn the 3950 has a digital audio out? ah...it doesn't have optical or toslink out, but it does have digital out. I wonder if i got a dac and a digital cable, if this would sound better than the swenson mod analog outs...

If you search over at AA, you'll see that Swenson himself now listens to the Toshiba with an external DDDAC1543 these days.

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?...on&r=&session=

That's a re-clocking DAC, which is a feature I'd recommend. I have no idea if it does sound better than the modded analog outs, since I intended to use my 3950 as a transport before I even started to mod it.

Peter

 

[Jahn]

lol! usually i think of keeping electronics cool, but swenson actually says HEATING this baby up, like literal internal heat, improves the sound! well who am I to argue. I'm wrapping this baby up in a blanket.

 

[Evoz]

Is there anyone I can send my 3960 to? to have it modded, I would really like to get the most out of this player possible. I dont have the time or the soldering skills to learn

.If anyone can help me out, PM me
--simon