Custom upgrades

On this page we are adding cd players and other sources that are either special, different or do not fully come under a particular upgrade.

Bluenote - Koala part I

This Italian cd player in its original form retailed at £1,995. See Bluenote

When we received the player it had already undergone some extensive upgrades which included a full overhaul of the tube output stage with quality SCR Teflon tinfoil coupling capacitors, Jensen screw terminal power capacitors and Black Gate K series for all the other capacitors. The dc blocking capacitors used were Audionote copper foil for that very natural un coloured sound. The dac was treated to a Tricord clock 4 and psu.

We added our PSU2 and 2X SPower regs to supply the Dac and decoder chips, more Black Gate caps were fitted along with Rubycon ZLH in the power supply. During the test audition it was noticable where the improvements lay, midrange neutrality was a clear indication of change, certain vocals on Eric Claptons Layla had sometimes sounded a little forced and bright where now these colourations have disappeared. Bass has also become less bloated and more natural with the treble becoming more integrated.

Bluenote - Koala part II

A few weeks after the Bluenote left our premises the customer got back in touch and was so happy with the upgrade he sent it back in for more treatment.

This time we added a second PSU2 and SPower regulator. Now all the digital circuitry runs on low noise regulation. Further to this upgrade the cd player was fitted with a pair of Mundorf Supreme Silver/Gold capacitors and solid silver rca sockets, leaving the Audionote copper in oil connected to the original outputs.

These upgrades added further to the previous sound with excellent dynamics and rhythm. The Mundorfs certainly add no or very little colouration when compared to the audionote copper in oil capacitors giving a much cleaner and natural presentation.

This is, now, truly an excellent sounding cd player.