Magnavox CDB-472

jcamero

Who are you people anyway?
I picked up this CD player a few days ago, and finally had the opportunity to hook it up, and give it a listen. It's a 1st generation player, with the TDA1541 DAC. The transport is a CDM-2. Totally amazed at the sound. Clean, crisp and clear. Nothing overstated. It's a KEEPER!
 
It's a 1st generation player, with the TDA1541 DAC.
First-gen players from Magnavox/Philips were 14-bit, 4X oversampling.

Yours is 16-bit, 4X oversampling.

I had a CDB-460. Same chipset family for DAC and filter. Mine might have been a '1541A--or maybe not. The '460, '560, and '650 were the first Maggotbox models released with the 1541-family of chipsets.

Audio Magazine ran an article on how to upgrade the unit with a few resistors and capacitors. I did those mods to mine, I think that was my first electronics soldering job. As I recall, the little resistors were to drive an existing op-amp chip into Class A operation. I think I spent about $20 at Digi-Key for the parts kit.

The upgrade was authored by a "famous guy" who's name I don't remember. He was associated with POOGE (Progressive Optimization Of Generic Equipment) and in fact I think he invented the term. He had a more-extensive modification for the Magnavox/Philips players, the Audio article was the abbreviated/simplified/condensed version.
 
Yup, that's the article.

I looked around for it on that site, and either missed it or gave up too soon. Just re-read it. Brought back memories. I moved on to an Adcom GCD-600 which also uses the 1541 chip, but I think it uses some other digital filter chip than the Philips. Gave my '460 to my in-laws who used it for many years, then threw it in the trash for some reason. I suppose it started skipping, or they dropped it when dusting the shelf, or somesuch.
 
I looked around for it on that site, and either missed it or gave up too soon....

I've done a lot of that too since discovering the archive. An index would be really useful. I guess they worked on indexing the early stuff but threw in the towel after the 1969 issues.
 
I prefer the sound of Philips TDA1540, 1541 and 1543 DAC chips in decoding redbook CDs. They may not be the most detailed or offer the best resolution but CD players equipped with these chips make a lot of CDs listenable.
 
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