Denon DCD-3000 Mod Thread

There were a pair of 2.2k ohm MOX resistors soldered to the trace side of the filter caps, shown in the schematic as R491 & 492. I carefully removed them and installed a pair of 0.1µF Panasonic ECW polypropylene caps where they were, and then re-installed the resistors over the caps. On the flip side a pair of ECW 2.2µF were installed. Not shown in the photos a pair of Wima 0.01µF MKS2 film caps were added in between the others.

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Cheers,
James
 
I replaced the bridge rectifier diodes in the PSU with Vishay SBYV27-200 ultra-fast-soft-recovery types.

There are 4x 33µF/50v caps, 2 in the analog section and 2 in the digital. These were replaced with UCC KYB 33µF/63v. C403, 404, 413, 414.

C409 is a 47µF/63v, it was replaced with a Panasonic FM 100µF/50v. This is on a 33v supply line, 50v should be plenty and the FM has a very good ripple and ESR rating. And it fit in place better than what I was first going to use, An FC 47µF/100v.

C425 & 426 are 0.1µF/25v ceramic disk caps. Replaced with TDK 0.1µF/50v MLCC-C0G multi-layer ceramic.

And then there are C406 & 407, 4700µF/50v main filter caps in the digital section. I've searched all over for data sheets for these Elna ASF caps with no luck. The closest that I came was a statement by somebody that they had read/seen a data sheet in Japanese and the 4700µF/25v was supposed to have a ripple rating of 1.9A. I replaced these with UCC KYB 4700µF/35v types. Their ripple rating is 4.22A. They measured 0.09 ohms ESR and 0.9% vloss. They also measured around 5200µF!

All of the solder connections were reflowed. After all of this I re-installed the board and tested the player, it powered right up with no problems.

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Cheers,
James
 
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VERY impressive work James! Thank you for taking the time to document all of this....I am certain it will be helpful in many future repair and restore efforts :thumbsup:
 
Thanks very much Roger!

There's more on the way. I'm actually finished with the player, I've just been a bit slow about posting. Next up is the digital board. And when I get some more time I will go back and post Mouser links for the replacement parts in the appropriate spots.

Cheers,
James
 
The digital board in my unit only has 5 electrolytic caps. I didn't do a lot here, but there are a few interesting things to note.

The schematic shows a 100µF/10v cap on the + supply line to IC201 (C404) and a 100µF/16v cap on the +5v supply line to IC300, as well as a 0.1µF (C404 & C301+C444) in parallel to them (2x in the case of IC300). But my board doesn't have either of the elcos installed, and no provisions or pads for their inclusion. The 0.1µF caps are there, in the form of SMD types on the trace side. I considered adding the elcos, as a local filter on the supply rail would seem to make sense, but the only way that I could see to do that would be to tack them to the SMD caps and I didn't want to do that. But it may be worth it to look deeper into how that might be possible.

Screenshot_Denon_DCD-3000_IC201_Filter_Cap.png Screenshot_Denon_DCD-3000_IC300_Filter_Cap.png

Cheers,
James
 
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The schematic also shows a 0.1µF (C101), a 100µF/10v (C102), and a 100µF/50v (C103) all in parallel on the +5v supply line to IC101. Interestingly it also shows that C103 in the DCD-S10 Asian model is a 1000µF/6.3v.

On my unit C101 shows up as a SMD part on the trace side, C102 doesn't exist and there are no provisions for it, and C103 is a 100µF50v cap.

I took a the hint and replaced C103 with a Panasonic FM 1000µF/25v.

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Cheers,
James
 
As far as the rest of the digital board, it went as follows.

C106, 47µF/16v, replaced with Panasonic FM 47µF/25v.
C112, 33µF/16v, replaced with FM 33µF/35v.
C141, 4.7µF/35v, replaced with Wima MKS2 4.7µF/50v.
C207, 1µF/50v, replaced with Wima MKS2 1µF/63v.

Under 4 of the pcb mounting screws there are 2x jumper wires that connect to the ground points. They were all somewhat damaged from the screws, 1 if them had a severed wire. I replaced them all with new tinned 0.8mm wire and also touched up the solder points on the trace side that make ground contact with the case. I did this on all of the boards actually.

Sorry to say that some of my photos here turned out to be pretty out of focus, at some later date I'll try to remember to take better ones.

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Cheers,
James
 
The headphone and volume control board.

There are 2 elcos and 2 ceramic disk caps on it.

C504 is a 2200µF/16v. Replaced with a UCC KYB 2200µF/25v.
C503 is a 470µF/16v. Replaced with a Panasonic FM 470µF/25v.
C807 is a 0.1µF/25v ceramic cap. Replaced with a TDK MLCC-C0G 0.1µF/50v.
C057 has no marking and is tack-soldered to the bottom of the board. Again, MLCC-C0G 0.1µF/50v.

I replaced all of the carbon film resistors with Vishay SFR16 and SFR25 400mW metal film resistors.

The JRC4556D op-amp was replaced with a socket and a Burr-Brown OPA-2107 op-amp. Yes, there are better op-amps out there but:
The OPA-2107 sounds better than the 4556 and has an output of 40mA with a 600 ohm load (compared to the 4556's 75mA with 150 ohm load). All of the other op-amps that I might have liked to use only have an output of 25mA to 30mA. But it's in a socket, so if someone points out an affordable better choice with an equal or higher output I'm all ears.

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Cheers,
James

note that those with good eyes might notice that in the photos C807 is still a brown ceramic disk. It was replaced before the board was installed.
 
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When I removed the analog board there was a small surprise. On the back side there is a 1000µF/25v cap tack soldered to the board.

The plus lead is soldered to the junction of R354 and C351 (+ end) and the minus lead is soldered to the plus lead of C382. After finishing everything else on the board I installed a Panasonic FM 100µ/25v there.

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Cheers,
James
 
One interesting difference between the DCD-3000 and the DCD-2700 in the analog section is that the 2700 has 2x 220µF/50v caps in each channel (4x total) working as local filters directly where the power leads attach to the board. The 3000 does away with this feature and only has the same set of local filter caps as the 2700 on all of the power supply rails where they meet the DAC's. So one thing that I wanted to do is raise the values on those local filter caps. And there are a bunch of them. I raised all of their values roughly fourfold.

I'm going to be lazy and not list them all by position, but they are clearly marked on the schematic and there are no differences here between the different market models. I used Panasonic FM for all of these positions.

100µF/50v = 4x on each DAC, so 16x total. Replaced with 470µF/50v.
22µF/50v = 1x on each DAC, so 4x total. Replaced with 100µF/50v.
10µF/50v = 2x on each DAC, so 8x total. Replaced with 47µF/25v.

While I had the old caps dismounted and there was room to work I also replaced every carbon film resistor with Vishay SFR-25 400mW metal film resistors.

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Cheers,
James
 
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There is a single cap in the section that powers the muting relay, C351. The schematic shows a 220µF/50v but a 25v cap was actually installed. I replaced it with a UCC KYB 330µV/25v. I did not replace the carbon film resistors in this section.

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Cheers,
James
 
There are 4x NEC µPC4570C op-amps after the DAC's doing I/V conversion duty, IC315 ~ 318. The Asian model shows a NJM2014DD here. I used my favorite TI LME49720 op-amps here. In the past I have installed sockets to allow for swapping these op-amps but I don't picture that I will ever actually do that so these 4 parts were soldered directly to the board.

After the I/V stage the op-amps from each DAC feed to 2x buffer op-amps, one per channel, IC311, 312. Again, µPC4570C's were installed here, for the Asian market SSM2139 parts. For these positions I did install sockets, and another pair of LME49720's.

Again, all of the carbon film resistors in this section were replaced with SFR-25 resistors.

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Cheers,
James
 
So now we come to the GLC low-pass filter.

The subject of removing it came up in member onanysunday's thread and the mere discussing of that thought brought aggressive and heated responses from a few members.
https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/denon-dcd-3000-cd-player-mod-suggestions.743661/

The filter sits parallel to the signal path after IC311/312.
It consists of IC309 &310 (BA15218 op-amp) and 8x caps (C377, 378, 379, 380, C053, 054, 055, 056) + 6x resistors (R387 ~ 392) (4x & 3x per channel). There is a 1.3k ohm in the signal path directly after the filter stage (R385, 386).

IC309, 310 are shown in the schematic as BA15218 (installed in my player). But on the board layout chart they are shown as µPC4570C for USA/Europe and OP275GP for the Asian models.

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The GLC filter is followed by 2x buffer op-amps, IC314, 315. µPC4570C's in my player, NE5532's are shown for the Asian models.

Cheers,
James
 
My opinion, after listening extensively to 2x otherwise identical DCD-2700's, one with and one without the filter stage, is that they threw the baby out with the bathwater. To my ears the player sounds decidedly better without the GLC low-pass filter. Again, my subjective opinion. But I am not alone in this opinion.

In my player I removed it. Entirely.

This is a completely reversible action, and nobody needs to do so that has doubts about doing it. I am quite happy with the change in sound quality. My amp hasn't blown up from the high frequency noise that is supposed to be hitting it and doesn't seem to be running any hotter than before. I don't hear any extra distortion, just the opposite, in my opinion the sound is much clearer and cleaner. But don't do this if you are worried about what will happen.

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After removing the filter op-amps, caps and resistors I also removed and jumpered R385 & 386.

Then I removed the final buffer op-amps IC313 & 314 and jumpered the pin-1 to pin-3 holes.

Again, to my ears after removing the GLC filter the player sounds better without this final buffer stage. It's 2 less op-amps in the signal path and the player plays just as loud as it did before removing all of this stuff.

Cheers,
James
 
On to the last section, the output coupling caps.

Again, there are interesting differences between the USA/Europe models and the Asian models.

The schematic for the Asian DCD-S10 shows some 1µF and 0.01µF caps in parallel with the series/parallel 470µF + 4.7µF (or 2.2µF). C389, 390, 391, 392.

Screenshot_Denon_DCD-3000_Analog_Filter_Caps.png Screenshot_Denon_DCD-S10_Analog_Filter_Caps.png

Cheers,
James
 
Now, I've been using such small foil parallel caps on the output with good results and had intended to do so here, but Denon made it easy for me because the unpopulated pads are there, waiting to be used.

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Cheers,
James
 
It has been suggest to me several times that the best sound can be had by completely removing and jumpering the output coupling caps. And I believe that this is probably true. But in spite of having no problem with ripping out the complete GLC filter I just don't want to go without any DC blocking caps on the outputs. Probably silly of me, because when I measured for DC just before those caps I got 2.5mV. But still, I did include some caps here.

I've been experimenting with different configurations in my DCD-1290's and 2700's and at this point I use Nichicon ES Muse NPE, Panasonic ECW polypropylene and Wima MKS2 caps here. A single 220µF/50v ES with a 2.2µF ECW in parallel measured lower in ESR than the series/parallel setup that is OEM. The non-populated position is jumpered. With the other players I also added some 0.47µF, 0.22µF, 0.1µF and 0.01µF soldered to the legs of the 220µF & 2.2µF.

Having the 2 extra parallel pads is a luxury that I made good use of. There is a single 220µF ES in one of the 470µF positions (C345 & C346), a 2.2µF + 0.22µF ECW in one of the former 4.7µF positions (C347 & 348), and in the 2 extra positions I added a 0.47µF + 0.1µF ECW (C391 &392) and some 0.047µF, 0.022µF & 0.01µF in the final spots (C389 & 390).

Lastly, there is a 10 ohm resistor in the signal path after these caps, R335 & 336, followed by some 150 ohm (R051 & 052) just before the output plugs. The 10 ohm are not present in the otherwise nearly identical analog section of the DCD-2700, although the 150 ohm are. In the DCD-2700 those 150 ohm resistors are shown as fusible 1/4w and that is what I used. However in the DCD3000/S10 they are shown as 1w but look exactly the same as the rest of the resistors in terms of physical size.

In my case I removed and jumpered the 10 ohm, and replaced the 150 ohm with SFR-25 400mW metal film.

Lastly lastly, the RY-12W-K relays are available at Mouser and I replaced the relay with a new one.

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Cheers,
James
 
The SM shows how to put the player in test mode by jumpering pins 6 & 7 of the test points. I did so. But the instructions are a little confusing and the player doesn't seem to react exactly as stated, this most likely means only that I'm not doing it correctly. And while I have found a Denon reference CD (DEG-10005 "Mozart by Denon") it is not one of those shown in the SM (CO-76143 "W.A. Mozart") so the results that I got are questionable. Still, if my Mozart CD is working similar to the recommended one it would seem to show that the laser is still inside of tolerance.

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At a later date I'll pull the player from my system and hook it up to my oscilloscope and check everything with that.

Cheers,
James
 
So, OK, How does it sound?

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Simply put, Delicious. Breathtaking clarity, I'm just stunned by how good this machine is sounding. At this point I have roughly around €250 invested in this player in total. I have about 4 times that in my Yamaha CD-S2000. And it pains me to say that the DCD-3000 in this modded form wipes the floor with the Yamaha. In fact, as can be seen in the photos, I don't even have the DC-S2000 in the system at the moment. I keep wanting to take the 3000 to the bench to test it with the o-scope but I can't bring myself to take it out of the system for a day.

I've been listening to this player for several hours every day for over a week now and I am simply in Love with it. Please don't tell my Wife.

Cheers,
James
 
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