MARANTZ© CD-38 + AH! TJOEB '99 FURTHER TECHNICAL INFO
This information is given under the restriction that only professional technicians use this information to do repairs or modifications. No responsibility for any personal or material damage is taken by us and it's the full responsability of the person who uses this information to open, repair or modify the AH! Tjoeb '99.
Before you decide to go and work on the AH! Tjoeb '99 (and
on whatever other piece of electronic equipment):
1. Switch off all equipment with the on/off switch.
2. Remove all ac-cables from the ac-sockets.
3. Remove all other cables like interconnect cables, antenna cables and speakercables.
4. Make sure that you are connected with the same potential as the mass of the set via a
wrist wrap with resistance. Keep components and tools also at this potential. All ICs and
many other semi-conductors are susceptible to electrostatic discharges (ESD). Careless
handling during repair can reduce life drastically.
Remove the 4 screws on the side of the machine and the 3 screws on the back of the machine with a T(orx) 10. Place the AH! Tjoeb '99 with the back towards you. Lift topcover at frontside and pull backwards (keep 2 thumbs on top of the frontcover and the fingers of your both hands on the sides of the topcover). Place the topcover carefully on the side, away from the location where you are going to work on the AH! Tjoeb '99.
After you have taken off the topcover, you can remove the drawer (if wanted and/or necessary). Gently push the drawer outside the machine (like it is opening to accept a compactdisc). At a certain moment you feel that it is stopped and will not go out any further. Do NOT push harder, but look for the small plastic locker which prevents the drawer to go out completely. With a small blade screwdriver you are able to "unlock" the drawer and push the drawer out completely. If you don't understand, send me an email before you destroy anything! Drawers (as all parts) are expensive!
After having removed the topcover and the drawer, you can remove the
full pc-servoboard with the main mechanism. Best is to leave the AH! Tjoeb cabling (all
soldered) connected to the pc-servoboard. This means in fact that you cannot completely
take out the pc-servoboard, but you can get enough space to turn the board to take off the
main mechanism and to install things like a SuperCrystal (although this can be more easily
done through the "service-door").
Disconnect the 6 sets of cables from their connectors. On the pc-servoboard these are
labeled / numbered: 1070, 1403, 1071, 1076, 1506 and 1508.
Than locate the 3 T(orx) 10 screws that hold the full mechanism to the pc-servobard.
Attention! These 3 screws have different length, so don't mix them up! Just remember (or
better: write down) where you take which screw from. So, remove these. The full
pc-servoboard / mechanism is loose, but still it is mechanically locked on the frontside
of the cd-player. You can unlock the full thing by pushing and moving it gently into
backward direction. When it is completely loose, you are able to turn the pc-servoboard
and you have access to the 3 screws to remove the main mechanism from the pc-servoboard.
If you are ready to perform this job, than we suppose that you just
finished the former job, and have the pc-servoboard with the main mechanism in turned
position.
Locate the (only) 3 T(orx) 10 screws that hold the main mechanism to the
pc-servoboard. Remove these and you will notice that the main mechanism is now only
connected to the pc-servoboard with a flexible printcable. This flexible printcable fits
into a connector which is locked (of course) and can be unlocked by pushing with your
fingers on it in the backward direction. Take the flexible printcable out and you have
removed the main mechanism from the pc-servoboard
If you are ready to perform this job, than we suppose that you just
finished the former job, and have the main mechanism removed from the pc-servoboard.
Have the topside of the main mechanism facing you. You will notice the small round clamp.
This has to be removed as you always have to exchange the cd mechanism together with the
clamp. With a small-blade screwdriver you can flip out this clamp
Have the bottomside of the main mechanism facing you. You will see 3 pairs of small wires.
1 pair of wires (yellow and green) connected to the main spindle-motor); 1 pair of wires
(red and black) connected to a mechanical switch near the main spindle-motor; 1 pair of
wires (white and blue) connected to the sledge-motor. These 3 sets of wires have to be
unsoldered. So write down their color and location and unsolder them from the main
spindle-motor, from the mechanical switch and from the sledge-motor.
Now you have unsoldered these wires, have a look at the cd-mechanism and locate the 4
rubber damping grommets. With a small-blade screwdriver you can push the top of these
grommets sidewards. If you have done that for all 4, you can take the cd-mechanism out of
the main mechanism and replace it with a new cd-mechanism. Than do all you did in reverse
order to make the cd-player work again.
If you replace the CDM12.1 with a VAM1201 cd-mechanism you also have to
replace the clamp. This clamp is delivered with the VAM1201 kit.
As described before on this page: follow the general instructions to "disconnect everything" from the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99.
Remove the topcover. Reconnect the AH! Tjoeb '99 to AC (be carefull and keep in mind what we have written about this dangerous job!!!) and don't get your fingers or any other parts/tools in the machine. Now start with the following instructions:
1. SWITCH POWER ON WHILE THE BUTTONS
"PLAY/REPLAY" + "STOP/CP" ARE PRESSED SIMULTANEOUSLY; YOU ENTER
SERVICE MODE 0, WHICH IS THE SLEDGE AND TRAY TEST.
2. TAKE HANDS AWAY FROM ALL BUTTONS AND WATCH THE DISPLAY.
3. THE DISPLAY WILL SHOW "0 P159 08" IN SCROLLING MODE.
4. KEEP ON PRESSING "SEARCH/NEXT TRACK" BUTTON UNTIL SLEDGE REACHES MAXIMUM
OUTSIDE POSITION.
5. THAN RELIEVE "SEARCH/NEXT TRACK" BUTTON TO CHECK IF SLEDGE GOES INSIDE.
6. PRESS "OPEN/CLOSE" BUTTON TO CHECK IF TRAY OPENS.
7. PRESS "OPEN/CLOSE" BUTTON TO CHECK IF TRAY CLOSES.
8. PRESS "SEARCH/NEXT TRACK" BUTTON; YOU ENTER SERVICE MODE 1, WHICH IS THE
FOCUS AND LASERLIGHT TEST.
9. THE DISPLAY WILL SHOW "1 P159 08" IN SCROLLING MODE.
10. YOU WILL SEE THE LASERHEAD MOVE UP AND DOWN.
11. PRESS "SEARCH/NEXT TRACK" BUTTON; YOU ENTER SERVICE MODE 2, WHICH IS THE
MOTOR TEST.
12. THE DISPLAY WILL SHOW "2 P159 08" IN SCROLLING MODE.
13. YOU WILL NOTICE THE MOTOR TO TURN WHILE THE LASERHEAD STILL MOVES UP AND DOWN.
14. PRESS "SEARCH/NEXT TRACK" BUTTON; YOU ENTER SERVICE MODE 3, WHICH IS THE
RADIAL TEST.
15. THE DISPLAY WILL SHOW "3 P159 08" IN SCROLLING MODE.
16. YOU WILL NOTICE THE SLEDGE MOVING TO THE OUTSIDE WHILE THE MOTOR TURNS AND THE
LEASERHEAD STILL MOVES UP AND DOWN.
17. PRESS PLAY.
18. THIS ENDS THE TESTPROCEDURE.
ATTENTION!! IN EVERY SERVICE MODE YOU ALSO CAN:
ERROR MESSAGES YOU CAN GET DURING THIS TESTPROCEDURE:
If you have any questions left after these tests, please do not hesitate to email us with your specific questions.
In case you have the feeling that 1 channel is reacting different from the other channel, it might be that the reason for that is a defective / noisy tube. Of course, before you think in that direction, you have checked and exchanged all external cables to find out if the problem can be found and solved externally. If that's not the case than you can check the tube by taking out the 2 tubes. Support your hands in such a way that you can pull the tubes straight up with very gentle side-moves. Exchange these tubes with each other to see if the problematic channel stays problematic or if the problem goes to the other channel. If the other channel becomes problematic you know that 1 tube is faulty. You can solve the problem by putting in 1 new tube (of the same brand and kind!!; we have used Sovtek 6922 and Philips ECC88 6922 Jan Military Grade), but better is to replace both tubes.
If for whatever reason you don't have an AH! AC Noise Killer in your Tjoeb and want to install it yourself afterwards, you need an AH! AC Noise Killer Kit, which exists of an AH! AC Noise Killer and 15cm of silversolder. Please read the following instructions:
1. Read the "general instructions" above.
2. Read the instructions "how to remove the topcover" above.
3. Locate the pcboard where all the powercables come together (picture 1).
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| picture 1 seen from above | picture 2 bottomview |
4. Take all cables out of the connectors on this board (a good advise: make a drawing of all connections before you remove any cable!!!)
5. Take the pcboard out.
6. Solder the AH! AC Noise Killer on the bottom of the pcboard as seen on picture 2.
7. Attach the AH! AC Noise Killer (remove protective sticker and press hard) between the 2 transformers on the bottom of the Tjoeb chassis. Make sure this location is absolutely clean and dustfree otherwise the AH! AC Noise Killer will come off after some time.
8. Reinstall pcboard and all cables.
9. Double-check what you have done. Remember this is 110-140V AC!!!
10. Reinstall topcover and you are DONE! You have a parallel ac filter at the best spot.
A coaxial digital output is not a standard issue on the AH! Tjoeb '98/'99. It is available as an option. However existing AH! Tjoeb owners who come to the conclusion after some time that they miss this feature, have also access to such an output. What they need for this is 2 "right" hands (or someone they know who has these "tools"), some mechanical and electrical tools, our AH! Coax Digital Kit (2 resistors, 1 capacitor, 1 header, 1 piece of silversolder, 1 piece of wickwire, 1 output connector) and the following guidelines.
Tools needed:
Measuring tool with mm and/or inches.
Marking tool.
Electrical drilling machine with adjustable speed.
Sharp Metal drills of size Ø 3mm, Ø 6mm, Ø 8mm (we like High Tech models from Piranha, B.B.W. Bayrische Bohrerwerke, D-94122 Büchlberg/Passau).
Handpunch Ø 9.5mm and Ø 16mm (from Q-Max, available through Farnell UK; orderingnumbers 100-609 and 100-648); if these are not available you can also use metal drills of Ø 9.5mm and Ø 16mm, although it might be more difficult to make clean holes with these than with the handpunches.
Soldering tool (we like to work with the Weller model WTCP50).
We do all the METALWORK before the ELECTRICAL WORK.
As described before on this page: follow the general instructions to "disconnect everything" from the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99.
Place the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99 on a table with the backside of the cd-player facing you.
Use a measuring tool to locate and mark the place of the digital coaxial output connector: measure 23 cm (± 9 inches) from the left backside to the right side. Make a small mark at the height of the center of the small rectangular hole in the middle. This means in fact that you have a mark at 23 cm (± 9 inches) from the left and 2,3 cm (± 0.9 inches) from the bottom backside.
On the spot you just located, you drill (very carefully) a small hole of 3 mm. Be carefull not to go too deep as some parts/wires are located behind the metal you are drilling in. Attention: the cover is still mounted and you did NOT remove any screws yet!! This to keep the drilled holes in line. Do not move the player too much after you have drilled this first hole, as small metal particles can be found on the inside of the hole drilled and around that hole.
Than take a sharp 6mm metaldrill and enlarge the 3mm hole very carefully to 6mm size. Be carefull again not to go too deep as some parts/wires are located behind the metal you are drilling in. Attention: the cover is still mounted and you did NOT remove any screws yet!! This to keep the drilled holes in line. Do not move the player too much after you have drilled this first hole, as small metal particles can be found on the inside of the hole drilled and around the hole.
Very carefully remove the cover by taking out the 7 screws with the T(orx) 10 as described earlier on this page and put it aside.
Carefully remove all small metal parts you locate on and around the drilled hole in the back of the player. You can use tools like small pieces of adhesive tape, a small strong magnet and a hoover to be sure you got them all. Attention: the spindle-mechanism in the actual cd-drive has a small magnetic field. Metalparts can be attracted by that and should certainly not be there!!
Use the 9.5mm handpunch to make a 9.5mm hole out of the 6mm drilled hole in the Tjoeb's backside. Do it in such a way that on the outside of the cabinet the hole is smooth. This means you have to draw the cutting part of the punch inwards the cabinet.
Take the topcover and a sharp 8mm metaldrill and make a 8mm hole out of the 6mm hole in the topcover.
Use the 16mm handpunch to make a 16mm hole out of the 8mm drilled hole in the Tjoeb's topcover backside. Do it in such a way that on the outside of the cabinet the hole is smooth. This means you have to draw the cutting part of the punch inwards the cabinet.
Insert the digital cinch output connector in the 9.5mm hole in the Tjoeb's backside. Use the plastic isolators. Mount everything in the same order as this part is supplied to you. Tighten this connector so it will not come loose. The supplied "solderlip" has to point upwards. The centerpin of the connector has to face upwards with the cutaway side.
Flip the "solderlip" to the frontside of the player and put some solder on the end; also put some solder in the cutaway part of the connector's centerpin.
Take the 75 Ohms resistor and cut away 2cm from 1 leg. This leaves 7mm of wire. This 7 mm leg is than soldered in the cutaway part of the centerpin of the connector.
Solder the centerwire of the supplied teflon coax-cable to the connector's centerpin. The side of the cable to be used is the one where most teflon is stripped away (18mm). So to the centerpin a resistorleg and the innercoaxwire are soldered together.
Flip the resistor in such a way that the long leg can be soldered into the solderlip. Cut excessive part of this resistorleg.
Solder the screen of the coaxcable to the top of the solderlip in such a way that the coax cable is laying in a right direction of the cd-player.
Search on the servo-pcboard (the board on which the cd-mechanism is mounted) location number 1073. If you have a Tjoeb which is prepared by us for this option, you will find a black plastic header with 2 small metal pins. If these 2 pins have not been tinned, please do so with the solder supplied. (If you cannot find the black plastic header on location number 1073, you have a Tjoeb '98 or an early Tjoeb '99. These were not digital-prepared by us. This is no problem; you just skip point 17 and go direct to 18).
Solder the coax teflon wire to these 2 pins. The centerwire of the supplied teflon coax-cable to pin number 1 (look for this number on the pcboard) and the screen of the coaxcable to the other pin (on the side of resistor number 3371).
Remove the drawer as described earlier on this page and put it aside.
Remove the pc-servoboard with the main mechanism as described earlier on this page.
Keep the servo-pcboard in front of you and search for the following referencepoints: 1073, 2118, 3116. Remove on the solderside of these referencepoints the solder with the supplied wickwire. Be carefull as the copper "solder-islands" on the pcboard are pretty weak and can come off very easily.
Insert the supplied 270 Ohm resistor at location 3116 and fix it by soldering fast and carefully. After that cut the legs of the resistor.
Insert the supplied 47pF capacitor at location 2118 and fix it by soldering fast and carefully. After that cut the legs of the capacitor.
Insert the supplied black plastic header (insert short legs) at location 2118 and fix it by soldering fast and carefully.
Mount the pc-servoboard with the main mechanism.
Now you can go to point 16 and 17 et voilà, you have a coaxial digital output.
Check once again all you did, correct what you did wrong, clean the inside, and mount the topcover. You finished the job!
You need our SuperCrystal kit in which you find: a SuperCrystal, 15 cm of silversolder (to solder the SuperCrystal), 10 cm of wickwire (to "suck" solder from the pcboard) and 3 small screws (to close the service-door).
As described before on this page: follow the general instructions to "disconnect everything" from the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99.
Remove the topcover.
Remove the drawer.
Turn the Tjoeb so you look at the bottom.
Locate the service-door in the bottomplate under the drive.
Cut away the metal strips that hold the service-door; make sure you cut away all sharp edges from the bottomplate of the Tjoeb and from the service-door.
Locate position 1101 on the pc-servoboard.
In this position a light-blue component is mounted (on the other side of the board). Unsolder this component very carefully with supplied wickwire!! Think of anti-statics (rest with your hands on the metal bottomplate and "uncharge" your solderingtool by touching the metal bottomplate before de-soldering) and don't use too high temperature. After the solder is taken away with the wickwire you can push the light-blue component through the mounting holes. Remove the light-blue component from the machine.
Insert the AH! SuperCrystal in the 2 extreme solderholes (so the middle hole is neglected) on the solderside of the board (this is the bottomside of the board!!!). Solder the two legs of the AH! SuperCrystal very carefully with the supplied solder. Think of anti-statics and don't use too high temperature as the copper islands come off very easy and than you are in ...... trouble!
Clean what is dirty, reinstall all you removed before (except the light-blue component), mount the service-door with the supplied screws and you are done with the installation of your AH! SuperCrystal.
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| bottom pcboard without SuperCrystal | bottom pcboard with SuperCrystal |
Untill about november 1, 1999, the AH! Tjoeb '99 had a relatively high outputvoltage (3.5V). We lowered this to 2.5V. Reason why we initially decided for 3.5V, was that during all initial listeningtests, the panels choose this setting as being the best, most favorable or whatever you want to name it. All the listeningtests were done with highest quality preamps, which apparently did not suffer from "overload". However, in daily life, sometimes the next section in the hifi-chain cannot handle this high voltage and you will notice an overload. In that case you can do 2 things:
Lowering the output through the volumecontrol of the cd-38 is considered as being not the best sounding solution. You might notice a loss in quality of sound. Specially in the mids and highs. Advantage here is that you can judge if you are having an overload. If you notice breaking-up of the sound during high dynamics, it could be you have an "overload"-situation. Lower the volume with the remote of the cd-38 and raise the volume on your preamp and see if the breaking-up of the sound has gone. If this effect has gone, the gain of the outputstage is too high for your system.
Lowering the output on the tube-output board is a more "tricky" thing to do. Not that it can be considered as "difficult", but you need certain tools and 2 "right" hands and (be carefull!!!) you do the adjustment WHILE YOUR TJOEB IS CONNECTED TO 110/120 or 220/240 AC VOLTAGE. Even considering the fact that you already own a Tjoeb, we don't want to loose you as a customer, so please think 10 times before you decide if you are able to do this, otherwise go to your experienced friend or local repairshop to do the job. Following the instructions, it will take only a few minutes to do.
Tools needed -next to the tools to take off the topcover-:
Digital measuring tool like a "Fluke" (or even a "cheapo" $ 10.- digital meter will do as long as it can measure AC Voltage at 1000Hz, not just at 50 or 60Hz!!!).
Small screwdriver to adjust potentiometers (if possible a total plastic one!!).
"Standard" test cd with a 1000Hz 0dB testtone. (We think it is) available in cd-stores. If not, you can order a cdr from us ($ 5.00) with the testsignal on it.
Well, here we go:
As described before on this page: follow the general instructions to "disconnect everything" from the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99.
Remove the topcover.
Place the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99 on a table with the backside of the cd-player facing you.
Locate on the blue outputstage board 2 small square 10K potentiometers. Their locations on the pc board are marked "Gain R and Gain L".
The outputstage board is resting on / inserted in 4 plastic feet. Carefully take the pcboard out of the 2 plastic feet on the side where you have found the 2 small square 10K potentiometers. This makes it easier to adjust the 2 small square 10K potentiometers.
Switch AC on (PLEASE BE CAREFULL and DON'T DO STUPID THINGS!!!) and insert your test cd and make the Tjoeb play the 1000Hz 0dB track (put it on repeat).
Switch your Fluke on in AC RMS Voltage position.
The negative measuring pen should be well connected somewhere to the chassis (ground).
The positive measuring pen should be put in the Left or Right RCA-output.
With the small isolated screwdriver turn very carefully the blue adjustment pots and read the Fluke meter to see the change of outputvoltage. Standard it's 3.5V and if you do this "treatment" because of overloading your preamp, we suggest to lower the output in steps of 0.5V. Do this for both channels.
Reinstall everything, close the Tjoeb and start listening (take a few days for this before you decide it has to be higher or lower) to check if this output suits your preamp better.
Further thoughts on this subject:
The choice of 3.5V was taken because of the result of several tests with listening panels. In fact 4.0V was their choice, but because that is (also) rather high, we lowered it to 3.5V. In our opinion it does not matter too much if it is 3.5V or 3.4V. It is important that it is exactly the same in both channels.
We measured the output with different settings of the Marantz remote volume control. These are approximate as there are in fact more steps than the 6 steps the CD38 Tjoeb display indicates. The voltage on the RCA output connectors was measured from going down upwards:
| CD38 Tjoeb Display setting | Output Voltage CD38 Tjoeb |
| 1 step | 0 mV |
| 1 > 2 step | 750 mV |
| 2 > 3 step | 1.33 V |
| 3 > 4 step | 2.0 V |
| 4 > 5 step | 2.6 V |
| 5 > 6 step | 2.98 V |
| 6 steps all the way up | 3.5 V |
Please note that you can measure different voltages at the different "sub-steps" (which are NOT indicated on the display) of each step. We measured always the first output at each step, except for the "full output" situation.
You need our TjoebSjoes kit in which you find: 4 TjoebSjoes and 4 small copper screws to mount the TjoebSjoes to the bottom of the cabinet.
As described before on this page: follow the general instructions to "disconnect everything" from the AH! Tjoeb '98 or '99.
Remove the topcover (see above for detailed instructions).
Remove the 2 tubes (see above for detailed instructions).
Turn the Tjoeb so that you look at the bottom with the front facing you.
Take one of the 2 Marantz feet which are located on the frontside of the player with your full hand and turn it 90º to the left. You will feel that the foot "unlocks".
Do the same for the other Marantz foot which is located on the frontside of the player.
Than do the same for the Marantz foot which is located on the rearside of the player. ATTENTION! It should be the rear foot on the side of the outputterminals. So NOT the one on the side of the toroidal transformer!! Now you have 3 of the 4 feet removed.
The last Marantz foot is located on the rearside of the player and needs a different procedure to be removed. Read very carefully the following instructions and look at the pictures!!
Take one of the 7 Torx screws that hold the topcover and screw it totally in the sidehole nearest to the toroidal transformer. You will see that there is space between the end of the screw and transformer (at least that's what we hope!!). Always take care to keep that situation as if the space is not there, the screw might go into the transformer and destroy the transformer and so your Tjoeb.
Remove the nut that holds the toroidal transformer and carefully lift the transformer (and its metal and rubber mountingparts) until you see a small stainless steel screw. This small stainless steel screw holds the 4th Marantz foot. Remove this screw and with that the 4th Marantz foot. Reinstall the toroidal transformer and its metal and rubber mountingparts and fix its location with the nut. ATTENTION! Keep the wanted space between the transformer and the small screw from the side-hole.
Now it is time to locate the holes in which we are going to mount the TjoebSjoes. The best is to study the pictures:
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1. Left front corner bottom |
2. Right front corner bottom |
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3. Left rear corner bottom |
4. Right rear corner bottom |
Please note that the locations 1, 2, 3 and 4 are given as seen by watching the front of the cd-player! The final mountingholes for the new TjoebSjoes are indicated with a small "square".
The holes number 1 and 2 need to be "threaded". For this we can use one of the 7 Torx screws that hold the topcover as these are self-tapping steel screws. Just screw them in the holes 1 and 2 and you will notice that after you unscrew the Torx screw that the metal now has a nice M3 innerthread which can be used later on for screwing in the TjoebSjoes.
Also hole number 3 needs a treatment. However be carefull here! On the inside you will find a pcboard and you don't like to damage that. First of all you need to enlarge this 2mm hole with a 2.5mm drill. Just drill through the metal of the cabinet and not any further!! After that make an innerthread as described at point 11.
Hole number 4 is our very "special". Be also very carefull here! Enlarge the 2 mm hole with a 2.5mm drill. Than use a sharp point (or if you think you are a carefull man you might use your 2.5mm spinning drill) to indicate (through hole numer 4) a small spot on the plastic (or wooden) plate which is under the toroid transformer. Don't go through this plate!!! Than remove the nut that holds the toroidal transformer and carefully lift the transformer (and its metal and rubber mountingparts so you can take out the wooden or plastic plate on which the transformer is resting. Find the indication you just made in this plate and drill a 5mm hole through it. Reinstall the wooden or plasticplate, the toroidal transformer and its metal and rubber mountingparts and fix its location with the nut. ATTENTION! Keep the wanted space between the transformer and the small screw from the side-hole. Now make an innerthread as described at point 11.
Now you have 4 threaded holes to mount your Tjoebsjoes. Mount them and make sure all 4 of them make a fixed contact. Reinstall the topcover and enjoy your new upgrade.
The SQ (EsKjoe) kit gives you the following parts:
1 L-shaped aluminium mounting-plate;
4 Plastic spacers M3*5mm;
4 Torx screws M3x10mm;
2 M3 nuts;
2 Screws M4*10mm;
2 M4 nuts;
Enough tie-wraps;
Torx 10 screwdriver (sometimes difficult to find);
2 Ceramic tube-sockets with goldplated contacts;
Wickwire to suck the solder to remove the old tube-sockets;
Silversolder to resolder the new tube-sockets;
Last but not least: 2 Philips or Siemens ECC288 SQ tubes.
Follow the general instructions as described above.
Remove the topcover as described above.
Cut the nylon tie-wraps around the wires that go from the AH! tube-board to the original cd-38 pc-board.
Cut the nylon tie-wraps around the wires that go from the toroid transformer to the AH! pc-board.
Lift the AH! tube-board out of its plastic clips by pushing in the spring on these plastic clips.
Completely remove the plastic feet from the bottom and take away the rests of tape and/or glue. Clean the bottom of the cd-38 carefully with petrol or a fluid known as sticker-remover.
Desolder and take out the 4 wires on the AH! tube-board that come from the toroid transformer. A=Red, B=Yellow, C=Blue, D=Grey.
Desolder the 2 tube-sockets and replace these with the supplied ceramic goldplated tube-sockets.
Turn the Tjoeb cd-player so we can decide for the location of the 5mm holes which are going to be used to mount the aluminium plate as supplied with the EsKjoe.
Locate the first hole to be drilled by measuring 13cm from the back and 3cm from the side and use a feltmarker to mark this spot.
Lay the aluminium plate on this market spot and use the feltmarker to mark the second hole by pushing the marker through the hole in this aluminium plate. Than drill very carefully the two 5mm holes. Be sure to remove all small metal particles!! and turn the Tjoeb cd-player so you can work on the inside again.
Check if the drilled 5mm holes do fit with the holes in the aluminium plate.
Reinstall the wires coming from the toroid transformer. These wires have to go first through the hole in the aluminium plate and can than be resoldered to the AH! tube-board. A=Red, B=Yellow, C=Blue, D=Grey.
Now the AH! tube-board has to be installed on the aluminium plate with the 4 m3*5mm spacers. The lower holes have M3 thread while the upper holes don't, reason why you have to use M3 nuts.
Install your new SQ tubes.
Recheck and recheck what you have done before reconnecting the Tjoeb SQ to the AC voltage.
If all seems to work the normal way, you can reconnect the Tjoeb EsKjoe to the rest of your system.
If you want and if you can, you can check the outputvoltage (see above).
Enjoy the extra quality coming out of your
Tjoeb EsKjoe and if you like it as much as we do, keep your eyes open for a
speare set of these tubes. In case you find quantities of this tube, don't
hesitate to send us an email!
The end-result should look like the following picture:
1. Sledge-motor change by Philips/Marantz.
Philips/Marantz changed at a certain moment from CDM12.1 to VAM1201. This to make
the player read CDR/CDRW discs. However at the same time they changed (without mentioning)
the sledge-motor and the metal spring/clip construction. Before the (bigger) sledgemotor
was attached with some glue and a metal clip. In the new VAM1201 version no glue anymore,
just the metal clip. And yes, during shipment from us to the client sometimes the small
metal clip on the axe of the sledge-motor could come out of its original position. This
resulted in the problem that the sledge -with the laser pick-up in it- was not moving as
it should and the customer had a non- or mistracking Tjoeb. Our solution: push out the
sledge-motor, put a little Bison-Tix glue (contact-adhesive) on the motor to hold it
forever, push it back in the original position and bring the small metal clip back in its
right position. Problem solved. Since than we also ship all Tjoeb's with an extra blue
foam in the drawer and an AH! accessoire-carton to make the package more rigid. A special
-extra- outercarton is standard. By the way, you can find on this page a full cd-mechanism
test.
We show you some pictures to explain which parts we are discussing here:
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2. Dirty ECC88 tube output board.
We received and used a small batch of ECC88 tube output boards which have created a problem. To shorten the waitinglist these boards were supplied by a sub-contractor who had to handsolder the tubesockets on the board. It is normal to use a solderflux during this process. It is also normal to remove this solderflux afterwards. However that was forgotten! Problem with the solderflux is that it could make the pcboard on certain spots conductive. That is something you don't really want. However it is also something really unexpected. How to recognize these boards? On the boards that could be problematic you will find 2 stickers. One sticker saying AH! and the other sticker ECC88. If that is the case you may email us to check if this pcboard was cleaned by us. If yes, than all is ok. If not and the Tjoeb is functioning well, it is also basically ok, but you may want to check. In that case disconnect everything in your installation as described before. Remove the cover as described before. Lift the tube outputboard out of its plastic clips and check both sides of the board for rests of solderflux. It looks and feels like little drops / spots of old coffee with lots of sugar in it. If that is the case the pcboard has to be cleaned. Before cleaning please remove the 2 tubes. For cleaning you can use an (old) teethbrush and some pure alcohol (white spirit). Brush the board and components on it, specially around the tubesockets and don't forget to lift the 2 small wires on the bottom of the board under which also some flux could be hidden. After brushing, the alcohol will dry away and the board can be installed again in its plastic clips. Install the tubes, check if everything is as it was and install the cover with the 7 T(orx) 10 screws. The Tjoeb is ready to perform again.
3. Drawer does not open!!
To protect the cd-laser mechanism during transportation we insert a blue foam in the drawer. Due to vibrations during transportation, this "blue monster" (copyright to 1st customer who had this problem) can turn a little in the drawer and lock the drawer if you try to open it. If this is the case you have 2 choices. The first choice is that you still might open the drawer by turning the "blue monster" a little from the outside (with a small screwdriver or something alike) but the second choice (which we prefer) is to take off the topcover and "help" the drawer from the inside. What to do? Disconnect all cables (ac and signal) from the Tjoeb and remove the screws on the back and the side with a Torx 10 screwdriver. Than remove the cover and you wil notice the blue foam pad in the drawer. By pushing it down a bit and at the same time manually pushing the drawer in outward direction, you can open the drawer and take the blue foam pad out. Please install the topcover again with ALL screws and your Tjoeb is ready to go! Since we discovered this "blue monster"-problem we use a small tape over the blue foam pad to hold it in place.
4. Tjoeb outputs only 1 channel!!
First thing to think of is that 1 of the tubes went wrong. However this is very rarely the case as the Philips tubes have proven to be very reliable. But transportation is a weird and "shaking" thing! So disconnect all cables and remove the topcover of the Tjoeb (see above, don't do stupid things) and look at the tubes.
If one of the tubes is looking "white" you have a leaking tube. That's an easy one. You have to replace that one (see above).
If you see "nothing", just swap the tubes and see if the non-functioning channel becomes a working channel and the working channel becomes a non-functioning channel. If that's the case you have a bad tube and you have to replace it (see above).
It could be that a "short" in the signalcabling "mutes" the output. Most likely this happens under (bottomside) the tube outputstageboard. You can find a black cable going from the Marantz board to the Tjoeb board. We have seen 1 or 2 cases that the shielding (negative part of the signal) and the internal cable (positive part of the signal) were in contact with each other. In that case please separate those 2 cables, so no contact exists anymore. If this was the reason of malfunctioning, the Tjoeb should work again properly. If the contact between the signalcable and the shielding was caused because of overheating during soldering, the cable has to be shortened. Sorry for the inconvenience.
5. Tjoeb has no output at all!!
If the display lights up, but you don't get any sound upon playing a normal cd, it might be that the fuse on the small ac-dividing pc-board is blown. Replace with the same value and see what happens. One time we also found that a wire was inserted in the grey Wago clamping cage and that no contact was made due to the fact that it was clamped on the isolation instead of on the bare metal. In early Tjoeb units we used an Italian toroid transformer which might sometimes give a problem (only used in 220-240 units). If the display (and the rest of the Marantz section) is also "on strike", than you have a more serious problem and you need to contact us to describe your exact problem.
This can happen with some test-cd's. If you play the tracks to check the left and/or the right channel, you might end up with no sound at all, while you expect 1 channel. This is due to the fact that our muting-system "looks" to one channel only. This means that if the muting system notices "a digital silence" both channels are muted.
6. Drawer comes out slower and slower.
This we found in 1 out of more than 2000 units, but we include this information so you know we are familiar with it and can help you out. Basically it is caused by sticky grease that comes in contact with the rubber belts used in the mechanism. We think this is due to the fact that an unit might have been transported upside down. The repair is a simple cleaning of some parts and in the worst case replacing a rubber belt.
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