MHZS cd33 CD player, anyone tried one?

[PinkFloyd]

This 18 kilo Puppy looks good too

MHZS, it turns out, is one of China's leading audio brands... you can tell that just by looking at the build quality..... these guys are not operating out of a garden shed

[rickcr42]

Cool Glad you are hppy.My only question left would be who's "outsourced" product did they CLONE to make this rebranded puppy

[PinkFloyd]

rickcr42 said:

Cool Glad you are hppy.My only question left would be who's "outsourced" product did they CLONE to make this rebranded puppy

Check out their own in house designed DAC Rick..... sure doesn't sound like it's a bog standard, I actually believe this is their own in house effort unless my ears deceive me.

[PinkFloyd]

We can discuss "cloning" till the cows come home but no doubt at all that China will be the world leaders in audio equipment very soon. Their passion and eagerness to break the barriers is like nothing we have seen since the japs got excited over British motorbikes back in the 1950's (and just look what they did to motorbikes!).... these are GOOD times for the music lover Rick and I say bring it on! It's a revolution about to happen and there's more than enough passionate enthusiasts over there to ensure it will be a musically enjoyable revolution for all us jaded / lazy / money grabbing western buggers resting on our laurels. You can harp on about homegrown audio all you want and you can blame the Chinese for the demise of life as you know it but one thing's for certain.... there's no stopping them.....

Bring on the musical revolution!

[rickcr42]

Their passion and eagerness to break the barriers is like nothing we have seen since the japs got excited over British motorbikes back in the 1950's

more like willing to clone anything no matter who owns the rights to it and WE give them the blueprints to do it when in a market with the rules of competition are not even it is outsource and give up the blueprints HOPING you can still sell products based solely on name recognition built up over the years or drop proces to compete head to head with your own design.

to say parts chaging and copying the work of others is groundbreaking is laughable mike.Study the actual circuits and compare them and 90% of the time you will see what is the origial that someone had to design and what is a copy prettied up with catch phrase designer parts or a prettier chassis and NOT a new design which I will flat out tell you there are vbery few of coming from that area and this I know as a fact being one that studies the details not the fluffy exteriors though the first part of the statement is correct-they WILL dominate the ENTIRE consumer electronics market in the near future at which time after driving out the competition you will find as you have throughout history the bargains suddenly rising in cost because NOW there will be no competition to turn to until the NEXT third world or third rate or backwards nation decides they too want in to the party and will ALSO make up their own rules to gain entry into the market and ALSO who will be the dominant player for a spell,

but you know what dude ? when this shit breaks or does not perform flwlessly over time there is no safety net of a manufacturer with a stake in the future of his companies reputation to turn to and the stories of "here is how i made this amp usuable/work as adverstised without hum or buzz" LEGION unlike the former practice of taking a perfectly functional and relaible amp and making it BETTER through upgrades.

seems the modern hobbyist see no problem with having to actually FIX a product at personal expense treating it no differently than the act of IMPROVING one and because of that and that lack of any screaming or yelling about it will become the norm where folks will fully expect to have to make corrections just to have a functioning product then justify it on the grounds that it is cheaper than the one being offered by the establishment.

Yeah,hit a nerve with that one mike because I have been all over this topic for years and have no misconceptions about what is really going on dude no matter who agrees or disagrees.In fact I think you would be hard pressed to find ANY mid level audio product not outsourced in the major blocks then merely assembled at home like a set of legos so they can slap a "made in the U.K. or made in the U.S.A. on it because they can't and still stay in business unless they rape you at the ultra high end of the price scale which is just as bad and no less theivery (i could name the companies but will play nice )

[PinkFloyd]

What I am saying Rick is these guys will LEARN and BUILD on classic designs you just have to visit a few of the Chinese forums to appreciate how passionate they are... everyone needs a reference point to start, hell we learnt so much from the Romans.... what I am saying is "eventually" these guys will start developing their own designs and that can only be good news for all of us in audio land. It wasn't too long ago in the scheme of things where the Japs were classed as copycats.... now they are innovative and leaps and bounds ahead of us....... get real Rick and let the Chinese audio revolution happen.... you aren't going to stop it... it "will" and "is" happening before our eyes.... get used to it and (dare I say it) enjoy it!

[scott]

Just recieved my MHZS CD66 player from Hong Kong...bummer it wont play CDs.Have tried a vareity of Music Types(!!) but no joy.Waiting for some advice from the seller but in the meantime does anyone have some troubleshooting advice.
It powers on with a 20 second countown timer.When you put in a CD via the top loader and close the top tray the Mechanism starts spinning the disk.Now and again it lists the Track Numbers on the display but mostly it just makes lots of grating sounds while spinning and after a while says no disk found .Believe it or not this is the first CD Player i have purchased(im a bit of a dinosour).I the instructions are in Chineise...Is there some sort of transport locking mechanism that has to be disabled??
Any advice would be appreciated ...
Cheers Scott

[PinkFloyd]

scott said:

Just recieved my MHZS CD66 player from Hong Kong...bummer it wont play CDs.Have tried a vareity of Music Types(!!) but no joy.Waiting for some advice from the seller but in the meantime does anyone have some troubleshooting advice.
It powers on with a 20 second countown timer.When you put in a CD via the top loader and close the top tray the Mechanism starts spinning the disk.Now and again it lists the Track Numbers on the display but mostly it just makes lots of grating sounds while spinning and after a while says no disk found .Believe it or not this is the first CD Player i have purchased(im a bit of a dinosour).I the instructions are in Chineise...Is there some sort of transport locking mechanism that has to be disabled??
Any advice would be appreciated ...
Cheers Scott

Hi Scott,

Sorry to hear that nothing worse than something dead on arrival especially when it's come all the way from China. No transport locks on these modern players, there used to be with the old (good quality) swinging arm mechanisms but nowadays they're cheap and cheerful worm and peg.

You've tried a few CD's and they're all spotlessly clean? If so sounds like the pick up isn't working as it should. Unfortunately most of these Chinese sellers specify that return shipping is at your cost so you'll have to spend a small fortune shipping it back to the seller.

Have you contacted the seller? Who is the seller and what has he said? No point in you opening the unit as there really is nothing that can be done..... if the CDP was totally dead then worthwhile opening her up and checking a fuse / valve hadn't slipped out during transit but if the laser isn't reading then leave well alone and send it back.

I REALLY feel for you mate and empathise with you, there's nothing more frustrating (and worrying) when something doesn't fire up, especially when it's come all the way from China, these guys know the MHZS 66 very well and they may be in a better position to advise you, who knows it may be something simple.......

Personally, I would contact the supplier and tell him it isn't working (dead on arrival) If he is worth his salt he will send you another one over immediately and arrange for the duff one to be picked up and returned to him. You may find he / she will insist you return the unit to them first (depends who you bought it from) at your cost. Either way, make the seller aware of this thread... he may well realise that a happy forum member equates to many many future sales for him

Keep us updated and, once again, sorry your experience of MHZS hasn't been a good one..... so far.

Mike.

[PinkFloyd]

You are putting the CD's in the right way round? Labels facing up the way? You never know....... just thought I'd rule that one out.

[scott]

Hi Mike..ddddddddooooffff..i didnt see the metal shiney thing in the box....now i have put it over the cd its rockin an rollin.Im off to bed with Jim Morrison now and some cool Hong Kong electronics.

[mavallarino]

Hello,

i have this cd player (MHZS 33) for about 6/7 months. I have only listened to this for about 30hrs.

Now the CD player does not open. I have contacted Mr/Mrs Chan and I will need to send it back for a replacement.

I haven't read all of this thread, but can I use a better CD tray/laser for this chassis? I think the other Sony models are better. I ask this because transport to China for this unit will be about €20. Maybe it is faster and easier to buy another in my area (Italy). Does anybody know of a Sony dealer.

To remove the CD tray I had to desolder the ribbon cable from the voltage regulator. I didn't want to risk putting too much hot air near to the laser!!! Too bad because the laser will work but only the tray refuses to open ;(.

Thanks for the advice,
MV

[PinkFloyd]

I'm donating my MHZS CD33 to fellow member Leo who will answer all your questions soon. I'll get her over to you in the next few days Leo and I trust you will accept the CD33 baton................

Give it a few days folks, all is about to be revealed

Pinkie.

[leo]

No problem matey and thanks again
Better get the camera charged eh should be a different beasty when I've finished with it ;D

[PinkFloyd]

Finally got her off this morning via standard parcels service, she will be with you in a few days Leo

[leo]

Excellent, thanks a lot Mke!
I'll let you know as soon as she arrives

[PinkFloyd]

By the way the two 2u2 polyprops (the blue ones) are not stock, there should be 220nF in those positions "musicaps"

[PinkFloyd]

Meant to add...... you can change from 44.1KHz To 96KHz or 192KHz by pressing one of the buttons on the remote (can't remember which one) before hitting "play" you will see it changing on the display

[leo]

Sounds like this ones going to keep me busy for a while Mike

[PinkFloyd]

leo said:

Sounds like this ones going to keep me busy for a while Mike

Maybe fit a different transport? ;D

[PinkFloyd]

By the way Rick, the MHZS has a 20 second countdown before she springs into action.... allows time for the valves to stabilise..... you see the countdown taking place on the display panel, apart from that there's no other gimmickry unless you class the ability to choose the upsampling rate a gimmick..... default frequency is 44.1 kHz or you can upsample to 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz by pressing a button on the remote before hitting "play"

[rowuk]

Naturally we can bash the asian pirates, but is that really the issue? Who is giving up on service? It is the customer that wants to have more than they could normally afford that has turned their backs on western manufacturing - and the western manufacturers follow suit by closing factories and relabling cheap asian made goods.
As far as higher quality gear goes, the chinese that build QUALITY equipment (=non mass market) also have to cover costs and use high quality components. If they steal a design, there are ways to deal with that. If there are quality control issues, that will also influence our willingness to buy.
I agree with Mike, the more the merrier. Graham is here with us building RELATIONSHIPS. There is no free ride and he definitely gives us good reasons to buy his products.
It is up to US to support the market. If WE choose cheap, then at one point that is all that will be left. I still see MANY small dedicated operations still alive - not only in the electronics world. Go after that VALUE ADD. It can be done. The Chinese are not the enemy, they are just using a market chance made available by our own greed!

[leo]

Got the CD33 (thanks Mike)
The sound is quite decent, its a fair bit behind my dac so far but its certainly no slouch and is better than a few CDP's I've heard costing much more than what this one retails at.
Build quality is very good, the case looks great and the pictures don't do it justice

Theres a fair bit of noise floating about inside this unit, also some noise can be heard on the output, not surprising as the servo etc is on that pcb with the high voltage supply and LT heaters for the valves, the black wiring carries all the data to the board on the right pcb containing the dac and output stage.
First thing I've done is replaced the pair of dac decoupling caps with Rubycon ZA and bypassed with 1R in series with a 10nF so not to upset the output of the regulator with the low ESR. later the standard dac 5v reg and its surrounding components will be removed and replaced with a low noise type closer to the dac

Quite an odd arrangement with the op-amp regulation, theres a pair of 2200uf Elna's on the regs output that is bypassed with film caps, theres then quite a bit of track length going to the op-amp supply pins without any local decoupling, fast op-amps are not suitable in this unit, I tried a few and measured oscillation on the scope so for now we'll keep the OPA2132. later on for fun I'm going to totally bypass the op-amp and feed the valves direct , the dac in this unit appears to be a voltage out type, theres no online info at all I can find as yet.

Anyway next thing I did was check the crystal oscillator circuit, its nice to see it uses one of the 4 pin type XO's rather than the cheaper standard types found in a lot of players, unfortunately the onboard 5v supply for the XO isn't to good so I've removed the XO and fitted it on a PinkFish low noise reg (little green pcb bottom right) fed from a separate PSU I knocked up. (just a small black transformer/rectifier and smoothing cap on a bit of vero bottom left)

After 10 minutes warm up theres an immediate improvement, bass is much tighter and deeper, music is easier to follow I'm quite pleased with the result so far.

[dc]

you're such a whiz leo!

[leo]

dc said:

you're such a whiz leo!

Nah, just like fiddling

Was reading that Chinese forum and noticed somebody else tried bypassing the op-amp stage so will give this a go next as soon as I can get the capacitor values, the resistors are no problem as I can just put a couple in parallel
www.hififever.com/forum/download.php?id=5519

[leo]

Trying to find some more info on the dac used in the CD33 I stumbled across a thread where somebody decided to take the cover off the chip inside the more expensive CD66.
See the picture in the link below, oh look!!! it appears to be nothing more than a Burr Brown PCM1742 now can somebody please explain why these cdp's are advertised as using SUPER 24 BIT 192 KHZ DAC BY MHZS "WHICH BETTER THAN CS OR BB DAC" ;D
www.hififever.com/forum/download.php?id=7344