Denon DCD-1560 CD Player capacitor replacement and upgrade?

kk_coastal

New Member
Hi Everyone,

I have a Denon DCD-1560 CD Player for $45.00 from the original owner. It's in great condition.

It sounds good. Exactly as it has been described in other audio karma postings. (detailed, neutral and transparent)

I'd like to have it operating at its best. I am thinking about upgrading and replacing all 39 capacitors (w/Elna Audio, Nichicon KZ, FG, Wima, Würth Elektronik Germany). The capacitors would be purchased from the company below over in Europe.

http://www.audio-high-store.com/product/denon-dcd-1560-upgrade-kit-audio-capacitors/

I'm not worried about the additional cost but in your opinion is it worth the investment? Will I notice improvement in performance and sound?

Thanks in advance for you input.

(Sansui AU-X701>Denon DCD-1560>Paradigm 3SE speakers)
 
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In my opinion it's not worth it because of the uncertainty of the aged laser. That model uses the KSS-151A which is quite expensive, if you can even find one.

And, yes, I own a DCD-1560....that has a bad/flakey laser.
 
I recently recapped a Sony CDP-302 and Technics SL-P3 for maintenance purposes. I used high quality caps (Nichicon ES, PW and Elna Silmic). I do not hear any difference with the new caps.
 
The place where you can potentially hear a good sound improvement is with the main filter caps for the analog section. The Denons that I've worked on had 2x 2200µF/50v Silmic caps for the analog section. I used 2x 4700µF/50v Elna LAO Tonerex. It made a nice and noticable improvement to bass and midbass. The investment isn't huge, €4.31 each at DigiKey...
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?mpart=LAO-50V472MS37PX#B&vendor=604

€59 for the caps seems a bit high to me, especially as there is shipping from Germany on top of that (unless shipping is free). More so as they don't list exactly what you are getting. I highly recommend looking at DigiKey and Mouser and see if you can do better price wise, they will have all of the good audio grade caps also.

Replace 6.8µF and smaller with Wima film caps.

But, as whoaru99 said, you have to decide if it's worth it to sink cash into a cdp with an unobtanium laser.

Cheers,
James
 
it's almost 20 years old and about ready for a recap to refresh it. depending on the
rest of the system, your ears, and most importantly, the music you play
you will most likely hear the difference (especially 39 caps worth).

if this is your first recap, brush up on technique, get the schematic, mark the polarity of
all the caps on the board (and verify the board marking with the parts layout with the
schematic with ANY discrepancies noted in web searches on recapping the 1560)
and replace cautiously to prevent explosions. (alternatively, use non-polar caps).

look at op-amp upgrades, proper op-amp decoupling, and measure voltages
to ensure no over voltages to active components.

and document this here for others or simply for the next owner.
 
I have acquired this great Denon CDP and it cost me twice more than 45 bucks. It's been laying low in the storage for the last 5 years according to the seller. So now I'm in the process of replacing the electrolytics.
During my first test Denon operated normally for the first 4-5 tracks of the first disc I put in as it arrived to me, but the next disc would start with scratchy sound, jumpy erratic behaviour. Third attempt led nowhere, now the disc would only spin say 3 sec then quit without reading any contents.
Well, it seemed to me I have just wasted a good deal of money? Ok now, then I spent 20 bucks on the fresh electrolytics from the supplier and they are all of Panasonic NHG, FM and FC series. Low esr 105 degrees caps. Crazy to put this money on this "dead" player?

Just to tell you I was so overly confident on the fact the caps have dried out being stored for 5 years without power so I decided to do this.
I have now replaced all the big value electrolytics and did all the small power supply caps except for two caps that are at bad location. All the caps I removed seem like brand new, also tested them with DMM and they look like they're within tolerance.

So now I have brought this mighty Denon back to life. After replacing the biggest power reservoir caps the player would read and work normally if I only helped the disc tray close with a finger when quickly tested.
Now after replacing more caps (the rest of the power supply) the disc tray is actually closing by itself without any help. Yay! So it proved one or more caps were leaking, even if I tested the removed caps.

Now I will replace the rest of the caps on the signal path, small value caps most of them as what seems like can be done easy way. Are there any easy go semi conductors that would be prone to failure that I could replace?

So far the player is sounding really great.
Anyway... just saying it can also go this way :)
 
in addition to the caps, it may simply be working the unit, getting it off "sticktion" from
it being unused and unexercised for the last xxx years.

it may be coincidence that it worked after several recap sessions, but overall, the recapping
allows many more years of service.
 
I have acquired this great Denon CDP and it cost me twice more than 45 bucks. It's been laying low in the storage for the last 5 years according to the seller. So now I'm in the process of replacing the electrolytics.
During my first test Denon operated normally for the first 4-5 tracks of the first disc I put in as it arrived to me, but the next disc would start with scratchy sound, jumpy erratic behaviour. Third attempt led nowhere, now the disc would only spin say 3 sec then quit without reading any contents.
Well, it seemed to me I have just wasted a good deal of money? Ok now, then I spent 20 bucks on the fresh electrolytics from the supplier and they are all of Panasonic NHG, FM and FC series. Low esr 105 degrees caps. Crazy to put this money on this "dead" player?

Just to tell you I was so overly confident on the fact the caps have dried out being stored for 5 years without power so I decided to do this.
I have now replaced all the big value electrolytics and did all the small power supply caps except for two caps that are at bad location. All the caps I removed seem like brand new, also tested them with DMM and they look like they're within tolerance.

So now I have brought this mighty Denon back to life. After replacing the biggest power reservoir caps the player would read and work normally if I only helped the disc tray close with a finger when quickly tested.
Now after replacing more caps (the rest of the power supply) the disc tray is actually closing by itself without any help. Yay! So it proved one or more caps were leaking, even if I tested the removed caps.

Now I will replace the rest of the caps on the signal path, small value caps most of them as what seems like can be done easy way. Are there any easy go semi conductors that would be prone to failure that I could replace?

So far the player is sounding really great.
Anyway... just saying it can also go this way :)

The belts are aged and marginal. The drawer on mine would not fully close without a finger too but new belts fixed that right up, without touching a capacitor one.
 
I may be wrong, but I've heard on one of my vintage receivers what it sounds like when the big reservoir caps are really totally dead. It's the garbled, twisted scratchy sound, which I heard with second attempt at playing a disc.
After that completely dead. I tried with several other discs... nothing, it would spin 3 seconds and then quit.

At first I also expected to obtain new belts, but now I'm not so sure whether I should just skip that.... hmmm..

Today I've let the Denon play over one hour including one complete album and 6 or 7 other discs playing just couple of tracks out of them.
Disc tray is operating normally. I'm pretty confident it was one of the caps being leaky.

It's working beautifully. I'm really astounded how silent it is, I can't hear the disc spinning, while I mute the receiver.
Now it's really getting into top form!
 
I doubt it was the caps but whatever.

I have to admit you were right about this. Caps were not to blame.

Finished with the recap and put everything back together and for my enjoyment the disc tray
wouldn't close up entirely anymore. First when the disc tray began working I was sure of it was the dried caps, because I had just recapped the power supply.

Anyway just before closing the hood, applied a dab of sewing machine oil to the tray mechanism, rails and spindles and then let it stay overnight.
Now the disc tray moves in and out freely, it's been loading at least 30 times without issues. No further action needed - that did the trick for the moment.

Here are before / after shots inside.
Soo what else.. I am enjoying the Denon "house" sound as we speak - hehe what a phrase.
 

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sometimes it takes all the tricks in the book. mechanical/electrical devices, after sitting
for a few years, and who knows what the environment was, takes a few exercises
to get it working optimally.

as I mentioned earlier, your recapping is NOT going to waste - there many more years of
good usage ahead.

now - enjoy the music!
 
I have acquired this great Denon CDP and it cost me twice more than 45 bucks. It's been laying low in the storage for the last 5 years according to the seller. So now I'm in the process of replacing the electrolytics.
During my first test Denon operated normally for the first 4-5 tracks of the first disc I put in as it arrived to me, but the next disc would start with scratchy sound, jumpy erratic behaviour. Third attempt led nowhere, now the disc would only spin say 3 sec then quit without reading any contents.
Well, it seemed to me I have just wasted a good deal of money? Ok now, then I spent 20 bucks on the fresh electrolytics from the supplier and they are all of Panasonic NHG, FM and FC series. Low esr 105 degrees caps. Crazy to put this money on this "dead" player?

Just to tell you I was so overly confident on the fact the caps have dried out being stored for 5 years without power so I decided to do this.
I have now replaced all the big value electrolytics and did all the small power supply caps except for two caps that are at bad location. All the caps I removed seem like brand new, also tested them with DMM and they look like they're within tolerance.

So now I have brought this mighty Denon back to life. After replacing the biggest power reservoir caps the player would read and work normally if I only helped the disc tray close with a finger when quickly tested.
Now after replacing more caps (the rest of the power supply) the disc tray is actually closing by itself without any help. Yay! So it proved one or more caps were leaking, even if I tested the removed caps.

Now I will replace the rest of the caps on the signal path, small value caps most of them as what seems like can be done easy way. Are there any easy go semi conductors that would be prone to failure that I could replace?

So far the player is sounding really great.
Anyway... just saying it can also go this way :)

Thanks for the response and input. I'm going to go ahead and recap shortly :)
 
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