THE ORRONOCO AUDIO DIY

Lately I really enjoying driving my car and doesn't think about changing anything on it, including the pre-installed OEM Bose audio system. I know how much time consuming when install proper audio system in car and I start to avoid it as much as I can. I also know for the end result from proper aftermarket car audio system installation could be sound amazing, but listening from this OEM Bose audio system is already fulfilled my expectation. At least for this moment:) But something annoying me from this audio system is the bass sound. The bass impact is not deep enough, and small distortion occurs from the unwanted vibration. So, I think I need to make some improvement on this bass sector first.

It has been a month since I bought and use this brand-new Mazda CX-5 as my daily cars. No doubt for the car performance, this is one of the most reliable, yet very comfortable car to drive. This Mazda CX-5 is the Elite version with 2.5-liter engine and package with Bose  audio system as a "bonus" features. This is car is very interesting, I will try to explain it from my own perspectives as a casual user, especially for the Bose audio system. Early disclaimer, I listening to this Bose audio system and in my opinion, the overall sound quality is not very special. Surprise, surprise! The sound quality is average but for sure better than most cars with non-audio brand collaboration. Let's deep down to it.

I take a break from my home audio for awhile and look what I got here. The Audio Art 100MS car amplifier. This is a sound quality car amplifier that very famous in early 90's along with others brand such as Monolithic amplifier, Linear Audio, Soundstream, A/D/S and many more. Perhaps you never heard this name yet, but we are that growth in the era of 80's and 90's are praised with this amplifier above all the major brand like Sony, Alpine or Pioneer. So let's take a look in detail.

For me, this is a quite surprise when I bought this used Pioneer Premier DEQ P9. The Premier name is actually a Japanese version of the Pioneer car audio. The DEQ P9 I bought here is a stand-alone DSP and an universal digital preamplifier for high-end car audio. It is released on early year 2000 and it came from the Pioneer ODR family which the name ODR is the optical digital connection between the receiver unit. This DEQ P9 is intended to pair with the Pioneer DEX-P9 as an complete high-end car audio package. I bought this unit quite cheap for one reason. Let's take a look inside first.

The story of this week is I just bought the Alpine DAC 3900 at the fair price. The overall condition for such this 30+ years old unit is in my opinion, excellent! The Alpine car audio launch this DAC 3900 series along with the cassette/ control head unit and the CD changer 5959. Yes, at that time, CD is the king and this DAC 3900 is the components of the highest grade of Alpine car audio at that time. So in this post, I am not just preview the outside of this DAC 3900 but also what inside it. Please enjoy:)

If I remembering in my teenager age, there is only one car audio brand that really takes me to this audio hobby, which is the Nakamichi. The 90's is the year full of great stuff. Car audio is also one of them. Nakamichi at that era is all made in Japan. The sound is so special because it has in-house sound signature. Like what I have right now is the Nakamichi PA-200 car power amplifier. I bought this unit quite cheap and it is looks so neat. So in this post, I will exploring this unit and find what I got on it.

The original Nakamichi is all made in Japan, before the acquisition to others Asian company. This original Nakamichi is so much different in quality compares with the recent Nakamichi. Like this one, this is the latest DAC from Nakamichi is DAC-41 that released on 2001. This is the successor of the famous Nakamichi DAC-101. Nakamichi DAC-101 is 16 bit DAC using dual TDA1541A S1. I have did some review for this unit  here  and  here . This Nakamichi DAC-41 is 20 bit DAC. I will reveal the internal components in this post shortly. At that time, the war for highest bit number is just started. " The higher the number, the better the sound",  this is a good point for a sales person. So let's continue to see this DAC unit closely.

My posting in this month is full of this Clarion HX-D1. I made this quite in rush because it requested from my friend, who bought this unit for his temporary CD player replacement. Almost 2 weeks has pass since the last modification which is previously, I take the line-out directly from the analog stages, the I/V and the LPF section. The new owner of this Clarion HX-D1 enjoy it very much and he requesting another modification. After consulting with me again about what will be suitable for this final modification, then we are agree to by-passing the internal tone control and channel buffer in this unit while still using the internal volume control.

So today post is about doing some modification for the input output in this Clarion HX-D1. As you might remember, I had the demanding customer who bought this unit and request it to make this unit more simple to use in the home audio. This modification process is quite easy because the only input would be the power DC replaced to the socket input from home power supply. Then the output could be a line out via 3.5 mm socket. It is no other method simpler than this when modify the car audio source for home audio.

On previous post, I have talked a lot about the Nakamichi DAC-101 for home audio. My interest to explore the multibit DAC is still continue. The PCM1704 is believe to be the last multibit DAC before all DAC replaced by delta sigma. This DAC can be found on Clarion HX-D1 which is the HDCD CD player using dual PCM1704U. This is the successor of the previous generation the Clarion DRX-9255. I really don't think the difference on them is just the DAC IC only. So in this post, I will exploring the components inside while modify it to become a home CD player.

Previously I had the Clarion DRX9255EXL which is sound amazing. No doubt it is because the resistor ladder (R2R) multibit DAC using in this unit is dual PCM1702. This DAC shines my audio system really well. Going further from the PCM1702 which is 20 bit sample rate, then if I want technically better, I will looking no other than PCM1704 which is 24 bit sample rate. This makes my journey to find best R2R DAC for cheap continues. Luckily Clarion also released the car head unit with this PCM1704 named HX-D1. This unit is replacing they older model, the DRX9255. All features in this HX-D1 are all identical to the DRX9255 except it is 24 bit and HDCD ready. It also has it's own sibling to the McIntosh car audio model. This Clarion HX-D1 is share the same internal components as McIntosh MX5000. So how the Clarion DRX9255 with PCM1702 compete with the Clarion HX-D1 with PCM1704?

So here I am today doing another modification to this Clarion DRX9255EXL. The main goal is making this unit accept SPDIF digital audio input from the external source such as PC or any media player that support the digital audio output via coaxial cable. In short, this unit will become a stand alone DAC + preamplifier unit. A brief explanation for this modification is like this. The Clarion DRX9255EXL has the ability to set the input mode from the optical input at the back of the unit. This can be done by a simple jumper or a switch from the BUS connection. But as I intended this unit to become a DAC in my home audio system, so no switch option for this unit. Further more, with this SPDIF input available, your option for any kind source input can be widely available. This is including using USB input by making the converter to SPDIF. For the example by using PCM2706 or any others converter available in the market that will do the same. But in this post, I will not make the USB converter...

I really amazed to the sound quality of Clarion DRX9255EXL. The main reason why it is sound so good is because the dual PCM1702 DAC inside this unit. The PCM1702 is multibit R2R DAC which naturally built for high performance audio or professional audio user aiming the best possible audio quality playback. It is totally different animal compares to the more simple, cheaper and popular Delta Sigma DAC. Hi-end audio manufacture which also aim the same things are mostly using this kind R2R DAC for serving their most demanding customer. After my initial review from this used Clarion DRX9255EXL here , I know this unit is really promising. The sound is very analog and musical which I've never heard ever before. So in this post I will restore this unit. The first step is by changing the capacitors, which the previous owner had firstly replaced them to the cheap non-polar capacitor. I also clean this unit as much as possible to looks like new. At the end this unit will stay in my home audio...

You might wondering where do I start to find these original R2R DAC chip now days? Personally I don't trust most IC seller in online market. They are either selling fakes, or original but in nonsense sky rocket price. So the simply and cheapest way to find those multibit DAC IC is inside the working unit which already using those DAC IC. The car audio is a great to start to find those great DAC and this PCM1702 is inside the Clarion DRX9255EXL. This unit is the hi-end car audio CD player built in 1996. It has 20 bit dual PCM1702 DAC. And why car audio? This is because the car audio manufacture can selling their product cheaper than home audio. It doesn't require large and heavy transformer for linear power supply like home audio does. This is resulting lighter and small package car audio components that can shipped cheaper around the world. When this Clarion released 26 years ago, I believe the price is should be very expensive for a car audio equipment. But lucky me, times pas...

On the previous post, I talked about the internal of this Pioneer AVH-G115DVD  here . This is quite surprise for me that this low end car multimedia is using a dedicated DAC IC from Wolfson WM8761. Although this type of DAC is not superior but think again, when all others cheap multimedia player mostly using all in one IC for handling all the  job in the player including the DAC, but Pioneer has more elegant approach by using separate DAC. This is for one reason, is the better sound. So, in this post, I will replace few capacitors that I think will improve the sound quality of this unit. I bought several capacitors for this upgrade, not much, only 2 pieces Elna Silmic 0.47uF for signal and 3 pieces Nichicon FW 3,300uF for power supply filter.

I bought this Pioneer AVH-G115DVD  here  almost a year ago and this is the lowest grade of Pioneer car multimedia line up. When I put inside my car, it look nice and modern compares to my previous head unit the Sony CDX-CA900  here . Although the Sony sound much better than this Pioneer, but I can accept using this Pioneer AVH-G115DVD because this multimedia head unit is the simplest way to listening the music on car. I can now playing downloaded DIVX movie copied to a USB thumb drive. There is no more stacking CD or separate portable audio device in my car to play music. So in this post, I will open it and see what component inside.

Some simple audio improvement are actually free. This applied to all audio system, not only at home, but also in the car. For instance, the car audio by nature has all audio feature on the head-unit itself to tuning the sound as we like to hear. For the most cases, we using it to improve the bass and treble based on what we think it is makes sound better, but mostly it turn out to become an awful sound quality. In this post, I will share some tips to make sound adjustment on your car head unit EQ properly. It is more likely professional approach that you will find in audio workshop and it is not only makes the EQ setting close to match with the car environment, but it rewarded with better sound as well.

While I am having a little break to work on the Bottlehead Crack headphone amplifier, I suddenly find this little gems. This is an Alpine 3506 stereo car power amplifier that you only can find it brand new 35 years ago and fortunately I still can find it today with all the original accessories completed. So, it is a nostalgic moment, as I always said, opening the new old stock product is just like having a time machine.

We are, who grow up in 90's probably know that the car audio at that time is full of great stuff. One of the most admirable car audio amplifier, at least for myself, is comes from Soundstream. The Soundstream Class A series built in very early 1991 and it is the high end car amplifier you can buy and put inside you car stereo system. I can tell you that this still the great sounding car amplifier until now.  Then why it is still great? Because it runs in Class A bias to achieve the best sounding amplifier. In audio world, the class A bias is well known as the highest rank in sound quality. The design that makes it great and the careful components chosen is what makes it run stable. I used to installed and playing this amplifier on my car ten years ago, but not this unit, it is a different type. At that time is the Soundstream Class A 100 II, dual channel 50 watt x 2 pure class A amplifier. This one in this review is the smaller version, the Soundstream Class A 50 II that only run 2...

On my previous post, quite long time ago on 2018, I have review 2 unit the brand new Sony car power amplifier. It is built around mid 1990, they are all 2 channel power amplifier. The small one is XM-2020S  here and the big brother is XM-3020S  here . The Sony brand for car audio at that time is pure Sony without the "Xplod" title next to it. For me, the Xplod naming didn't sell at all. Sony keep the Xplod name for very long time until it vanished the popularity by it's own. The naming is very important. Like you naming your own baby right? Xplod name itself is started to put in the market about early 2000. It is not even sells better than the ES Sony car audio branding that already stop production on the same year. Fast forward today, on my hand right now, I got the brand new Sony Xplod XM-SW3. This is the early Sony Xplod with 3 channel power amplifier that dedicated for 2 channel for the front speakers and 1 channel for sub-woofer. Let's find out.