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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

Installing a Guido Tent Clock on a Rega Planet CDP

The original Planet is a $400 CDP (used) that has excellent instrumental timbre, very little digital "metallization" and soundstaging in spades.
On part I, I fixed a few things that make it sound bland and uninvolving. On part II, I installed a precise clock.
After those mods, the Original Planet easily surpasses the current Rega players and most 2-3k currrent players (IMS, IMO, etc.), provided that you are not a bass freak.

If U R a bass freak on a budget, look for CAL ICon II mods.

Part I of the Rega mod saga:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/digital/messages/66200.html

Part II:
Tap a 9 to 35 V power supply to feed the clock board. I found a convenient 12V supply in the first large PS cap (closest to the toroidal trafo).

Install a 2 mH 0.1 ohm choke in series between the PS cap and a 100 uF low ESR cap (additional cap).
Drill a hole through the ground plane, scrape some insulation, solder the cap's negative terminal to the ground plane. The cap positive terminal goes to the V In hole in Tent's board.
You have just implemented a CLC filter, a trick used by Musical fidelity in their NuVista mucho dinero player.

Remove the original crystal (16.9344 MHz) and two associated ceramic caps.
Solder the Clock wires as follows:

Black: to ground connection left vacant by the capacitors (any of the 2 holes is OK)
Yellow or Purple: to crystal circuit pad (now empty) closest to the front panel.

Use some nylon spacers or Radio Shack aluminum standoffs to hold the board in place. The closer you place the board to the original crystal location, the better. Use the shortest possible wire length.

OK, you are done.

Guido Tent's clock, besides being inexpensive, comes with its own regulated supply. Like the dialogue in the movie "1984", that's a "doubleplusgood".
I bet you will hear a much refined midrange/treble, better soundstaging and tuneful bass.

Standard disclaimer:
I do not perform mods comercially.
No affiliation to Guido Tent besides being a very happy customer.

Good luck tweaking, feel free to ask questions.
Carlos



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Topic - Installing a Guido Tent Clock on a Rega Planet CDP - Carlos 14:41:56 07/1/03 (6)


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