Technics SU-V5 with Up2Stream Mini V3 Project

DIY Products&Projects DIY Product Projects
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The forum may be interested in another project by Baynes Audio, this time for a customer who wanted his daughter’s 1980s vintage Technics SU-V5 amplifier repairing. When I demonstrated to him a Luxman R1030 where I’d already incorporated an Acrylic Up2Stream Mini V3 streamer, he wanted the same :star_struck:

This is how it looked in it’s finished state - cosmetically almost as good as new, and functionally far better than new:

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The amplifier was repaired, cleaned it inside and out, re-capped, and it had a full service before being modified to include an Arylic streamer.

For the Luxman mentioned above, I’d already designed a PCB for use with the Mini V3 to convert main amplifier PSU to the required 5V DC, using a 18-75V TRACO Power DC-DC converter and to improve sound quality included an ESS 9023 hifi DAC. This PCB design was suitable in form, fit and function to used here too, mounted on a small aluminium bracket to fit perfectly in a space over the phono pre-amp stage:

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On the front panel a pushbutton was fitted with integral LED for resetting and indicating the Arylic streamer is connected to WiFi:
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As two tape inputs are unlikely to be required anymore, the ‘tape 2’ input was repurposed to listen to the Mini V3 streamer.

The amplifier is in a metal case so needs external aerials so two are used one for WiFi and one for Bluetooth. To avoid creating a ground loop the WiFi aerial needing to be insulated from the chassis in this project.

This is the internal view of the finished amplifier, all nice, tidy and OEM looking:

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Once, finished repairing amplifiers the amplifier was subject to a series of test. Here are two: THD+N vs. Power output and frequency response using the auxiliary (line) input:

THDN vs Power Aux - After Service
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Frequency Response Aux - After Service
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Distortion and power output are better than OEM spec, and the frequency response within a gnat’s whisker.

This was an enjoyable project with the end result sounding very good, with features brought up to date. Most importantly it saved yet another piece of electronic equipment from being consigned to the dump.

When the customer and his daughter came to pick it up, they were both extremely satisfied with how it looked and sounded, especially after the streamer demo.

The customer was so impressed, he decided he wanted a streamer adding into his Yamaha CR-800 which I was part way through repairing. The Yamaha will have to be the subject of another post :grinning:

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Hi SimonB,

Thank you for your sharing.
It is awesome. I have a similar idea but I haven’t the knowledge. Can you explain more about the PCB you made to teach us?
Great integration!

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Love this project. I did something much less elegant with a Denon AVR, but I have a beautiful Luxman R-117 that I could see doing this with. I am clueless on designing and integrating the PCB, but maybe the Arylic team could create a vintage amp streamer conversion kit? Anyway, great work and thanks for all the details and pictures. I would love to have something like this in several places in my house!

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Hello Simon, a wonderful work that you are presenting here, thanks for sharing here, anyone who has ever fitted a whole amp like this with new capacitors knows what work that is! Respect! Can you imagine selling your self-made board either as a schematic / ready-made board or to share the design, I would like to take over that for some projects, thank you very much and keep it up! greeting Jörg

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Hi Simon,
Nice neat job, well done!

Cheers,
Steve

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Hi @Tot ,

The board was designed using KiCad EDA, an open source Electronics Design Automation suite and the boards made by uploading the Gerber files to JLC PCB.

This board basically does three things:

  1. Isolated DC-DC conversion from amplifier power rails and the 5V required for the Mini V3. This is done using a TRACO Power TMR 4-4811, with the addition of a decoupling cap.
  2. Higher quality DAC using the I2S interface. As Arylic supply a module doing this, I don’t want to undermine their products, so recommend you just use their DAC module.
  3. Provides a fully pluggable interface between the Mini V3 and my installation. I remove the reset switch and the power connector from the Mini V3 so to wire.

This board had specific size and mounting holes as it was originally designed to fit in a Luxman R-1030 receiver. It has a ground plane on the lower side of the PCB to minimise EMC issues with the AM/FM tuner board it was mounted next to (sneak-peek of another project):

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Hope that helps.

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That’s a good idea. Fundamentally it’s the isolated PSU that is needed and the fully pluggable interface.

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Thanks a lot!