JHoman Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I currently have a Magnavox 650 cd player in my system. It plays great and has a very natural, uncolored sound. I have read that is a very modifiable player. Has anyone had any experience with modifying one of these? What type of modifications can be done to it and are they woth doing? Is there a Magnavox guru out there that knows all the tricks? Thanks, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captn Bob Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 These were real popular in the first days of CDs because they sounded good and they did lend themselves to modifications. I've got one myself. One of their selling points is they have a digital output, so you could start by getting an outboard converter. I'm always a bit leery of getting inside and poking around in these things unless you really have the experience. Otherwise you can have a "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" experience real quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moray james Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 sorry to seem like I am giving you a hard time but that`s a LONG in the tooth player to be investing your money time and effort into. Buy a brand new entry level Sony DVD player at the mart for $35.00 give or take a few. Brand new very good bags of potential or just use it for a year or so then replace it with the new version from Sony. I mean how can you loose doing that? Here is a tip if you use the Sony as a player build a 75 ohm shorting plug for the digital out. Have fun and all the best regards Moray James. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHoman Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Yes, it's old, found at an estate sale a year or so ago. Brought it home and tried in my bedroom system, sounded better than I expected. I then brought it down to my main system and replaced a much newer Sony cd player and it sounded better that that. So after reading a little about it, I was just trying to find out if it's worth updating or if anyone on the forum has hot-roded one of these. Heck, it may already be tweaked....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moray james Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Well it would be a vehicle to learn on from a mod point of view but so is cheap Sony DVD player. If you do a google search you will fing bags of tweak threads as the Philips is a good machine and was a very popular unit to pooge (tweak). The entry level Sony DVD player is so inexpensive and so very good for the money. It has excellent chip sets and it`s only real weakness out of the box is it can sound a little harsh or edgie but it has detail that can rival the big boys. A good friend and I have worked on about a half dozen of the Sony and with some work thy can rival players in the 3K plus range. But like I said for $35.00 just get a new one every time Sony upgrades their line and spend your time and money on speakers or an amplifier project. Don`t ask what we did as it`s not for sale I simply mention it as the Sony is well worth your consideration while a 1985 CD player is not really a good bet especially if it has had prior mod work done to it. Use the Philips til it dies, it was and still is a good player. Have fun and enjoy the old upgrade threads as there is lot of great information there. Best regards Moray James. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbndtrain Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Modern op amps, filter caps, output coupling caps are a good place to start. If it has issues reading burned CD's most likely a dried out 33uf cap on the servo board. You can delete muting transistors, and look into non-oversampling. After that, you can look into an aftermarket clock, new TDA1541 decoupling caps, the list goes on and on. I have a mildly modified one with non-OS and a stock one and I can't really hear too much of a difference. I think the Op Amps made most of the difference, being a crisper top end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.H.E. Droid Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 ....Buy a brand new entry level Sony DVD player at the mart for $35.00 give or take a few. ... I've given up on Sony forever. My Sony 3D blue ray player has the worst human interface ever designed. Of my four Sony multi-disc players (2x200cd, 1x400cd 1x200 dvd) only one still works. I've repaired the dvd player several times now only to have it fail again. Even my sony IPOD dock/mini stereo gave up the ghost. And those two big Sony rear projection TVs? Both of those died too. Stangely, all my other stuff-- Pioneer, Adcom, Samsung, etc. still works fine. Sony seems to have gone from a premium product to an overpriced corner-cutter. Kind of like Bose but at least Bose stuff seems to keep working too. As far as Marantz goes, I've been thinking about getting the CD 5004 single disc player. At $350 it's more upscale than consumer decks but cheaper than some of the esoteric stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmrt69 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 This CD player was; perhaps, the greatest audio bargain produced by Philips/Magnavox in 1987/88. I believe it uses dual D/A converters for a very low phase shift between the left and right channels. Units typical of that time period relied on a single D/A converter resulting in high phase shift at the higher ends of the frequency spectrum. I still own the unit that a former girlfriend bought for me as a Christmas gift in 1988. The only CD player I have heard that I prefer over it was a Carver S/DA 490t that used vacuum tubes in the output stage. While I'm quite sure that digital to analogue converter technology has long surpassed what was used in this player. It's a kool example of late 80s consumer electronics. Stereo Review gave it high marks in their review which was similar to this online review: http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/magnavox-cdb-650-180.html. Wouldn't part with mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the real Duke Spinner Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 Just ante up for Jolida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 19 hours ago, zmrt69 said: I'm quite sure that digital to analogue converter technology has long surpassed what was used in this player. Everyone had one of these back in the day, and many "brands" were just modded or rebranded 650s. I had one stock, and then bought one with all the POOG mods, which I believe just affected the analog output stage. Neither could approach the analog record player. Fast forward 30 years: Got tired of flipping the same five records as I became a lazier DJ, and finally quit altogether, and sold all my records and player. After a 5 year hiatus, I came back and started playing mp3s, as that is where the new music is delivered now. Someone took pity on my old phone and suggested a Topping E30 DAC, which finally made the digital listenable for me. Unless you still favor your Radio Shack TRS-80 computer for some odd reason, there is no way stuff from the 80's can compare to present day tech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the real Duke Spinner Posted July 27, 2022 Share Posted July 27, 2022 Just find s Jolida most expensive playe. I ever purchased No regrets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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