The last attempt on the best CD transport I am able to build

The Bread-Board Monster Killer

Conceived be Lampizator on July 23rd 2010

Sonically - as a spdif transport this is better than any traditional disc spinning transport, including the CEC TL1x, Theta Data, Esoteric P1, Teac VRDS X25, Mephisto 1 and Mephisto 2, North Star, etc.

There is simply more pleasure from Squeezebox based transport - deeper, cleaner, faster bass, better space definition, better 3-d effect, more goosebumps.
For me there is no going back.

Here is my last attempt on Hot Rodding the Squeezebox Duet.

all power points on PCB with Oscon upgrade caps from the top quality SEPC series
SPDIF output totally new and rebuilt from another stealing point (output through the top quality silver mica Crystal capacitor from space program)
Superclock added (MR Clock Gen2) instead of old cheap quartz
Power supply added instead of the impulse wall-wart - separate secondary from the main transformer, regulated and filtered (9VDC)
Separate power supply for the superclock- regulated and filtered (9VDC)
Separate regulated filtered power supply for tubes heaters (14 VDC Series heating)
Output stage built like Lampizator SRPP circuit, using superb PCC88 Tesla tubes
Choke filtered power supply for anodes of tubes (200V)
Tube rectification - dual diode half bridge using Russian 5c4s
Belden 75 OHm coax cable with silver center and silver plated screen for SPDIF
100 VA toroid transformer custom made for Lampizator projects
Paper in Oil output caps - TELPOD 2uF - military Warsaw Pact standard
Output volume adjusted to 3 V pp
IEC power input socket (Shurter - Swiss made)
Lampizator connector edge back-plate with RCA sockets and power switch.

Above - the superclock. Black wire goes to GND, red wire is the actual clock signal of 11,something Mega Hetrz.

Above- Oscons in critical locations. Especially the right one is critical for SPDIF signal. Also use Black Gates there. The left one is important for the DAC section.

I soldered that oscon in the empty holes marked 5V and GND. It is for Wolfson DAC supply
Orange caps are additional bypasses across DAC output caps (SMD electrolytes. I kept them and added Vishat MKP 220nF/63V across the soldering points.)
Desoldering the electrolytes results in PCB track damage. I dont advise it.

Above - R102 is removed and white wire goes to new spdif stealing point.

Above- two important oscons on the regulator. Left oscon conects to the input side of the regulator and right one to the output. The right leg of the right one is negative and is soldered to GND. I scraped off some green lacquer to get the close-by GND connection.

This is my transformer - 100 VA core, and 6 secondary voltages for all the possible purposes. I used all of them in this project.
\

Above - the tube rectified, choke filtered anode supply.

The orange arcotronics is the final electrolyte bypass.

Silver cans are paper in oil capacitors for output stage of the tubes.

I chose the PCC88 tubes which are my favourite choice recently due to wide availability and low price while ECXELLENT sound quality.

This green cap is siver-mica type, ULTIMATE hi-frequency cap. This one is a soviet space programme type, with 10 nF and 350 V ratings. For me - the best for SPDIF. I use them in all my DACs now too.
Look at their quality standards : TOLERANCE IS =/- 0,3 % hahahahahahaha !!!!!

Above - the clock point of signal injection. After removing the R104.

This is a cool trick. If the regulator gets too hot but not by much, jusssst a liiiittle too hot - you can solder its "head" to the piece of copper wire, in this case - the ground wire. It forms a) regulator holder and b) radiator. Very good cheap trick (providing that the regulatorhas internally grounded head. Check it first.
Not good for diode - elevated voltage values like in 6,4 VDC circuits for heaters.

Above : three separate regulated supplies for tubes, clock and squeezebox.

The red wires are silver in teflon. Made in USA.

The sound from the lampized DACS is very good, although not as good as the best separate dacs. But I could really live with it. Especially bass is awesome (as it always is with Wolfsons)
This is a cheap one but Wolfson nevertheless.

The digital quality - when feeding external DAC - is mindblowing. It is the best. Partially due to internal memory buffer which closes the gap between this transport with the external DAC combo and say Chord DAC with internal fifo memory or say a system with Genesis Digital Lens.