Wow!! after the mod

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.

8. 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