PCDP
PCDP Components Table in MS Excel format
PCDP Components Table in PDF format
Original table can be found at kaosuncd.com. I transferred data into MS Excel and then sorted Discmans by the year. Some info on Sony Discmans was borrowed from sonyvintage.com; other-times extracted from Service Manuals or from the photos of the actual items undergoing surgery on my workbench. Excel file is updated each time I get a new Discman, PDF file updated only occasionally
Here is the Snow White:
It must have been kept in storage until the grease got stiff, then played… once! Sled gears were immediately broken and so the Sleeping Beauty was packed and stashed away for a few decades…. then posted on eBay. I was the one who bought this beautiful paperweight. Continue reading The most beautiful Discman in the World. Loewe CD-100
D6800 shall never win any Beauty Contest: it is just too big and chunky. It was designed for portable use, and all 6xAA (!) batteries should be loaded inside the player.
As already mentioned here, D-6800 has one of the most powerful headphone amplitiers among Discmans. Officially it is rated as 20mW into 32Ohm, but my own tests show the same numbers as for Sony D-50MkII and Technics SL-XP5 which are rated at 30mW/32Ohm.
Bad news: absolutely ALL D6800 are dead by now… Continue reading Philips/Magnavox D6800 restoration
Based on its internal schematics, Realistic CD-3350 was made for Radio Shack by Denon. To my eyes, it is the most beautiful Discman in my collection, rivaled only by another “flying saucer” from Philips:
Having nothing better to think about, I was trying to remember when and why did I fell in love with Black Gate capacitors. I must have learned about their existence from reading audio-porn at DIY or some audiophile site. Black Gate caps were the top-shelf audio-grade electrolytics produced by Rubycon. Quite expensive while in production, outrageously priced nowadays, the name should not be mentioned at any respectable DIY forum. The consensus seems to be that the specs of modern-day electrolytics far exceed those of Black Gate caps. This may be so, but not quite conclusive for me because specs alone do not tell the whole story. The specs of any $50 CD player are the same as those of $100k+ dCS stack and always better than the specs of Continuum Caliburn turntable, unless you actually listen you never know Continue reading Black Gate capacitors and “snake oil” in home audio
Who would want a Discman in the age of iPhones? No one walks out of the door without a cell phone, and earbuds is all you need to have “portable” music.
Better sound quality on the Go? Hi-Rez player from Questyle, A&K, Pono, or even iPod with portable headphone amplifier usually cures this fit of audiophilia.
Some Discmans do sound better than iPods/iPhones, but all such players are the 1st and 2nd generation of Discmans and they are anything but portable.
So, who would want to invest time and money into decent Discman? Folks like me, the Lazy ones. I ripped a few hundred CDs onto iTunes, now have just a few more thousand CDs left. My progress is slow, plus the flow of “incoming” CDs overwhelms my skills of ripping them. Continue reading Why Discman?
Sony D-90 is a very special Discman. In 1990 this model was selected for an “upgrade” with 1-bit DAC, Discman D-99 was born. Once cheap 1-bit DACs found their way into CD players, it was a matter of months before the race for the “most affordable” player began. We all know how it ended. Opening the way to the slippery slope of ultra-affordable digital, D-90 symbolizes the end of “Classic” Discmans and the end of quality sound reproduction in portable devices. Audiophiles of the 80-ies thought that CD introduction was the beginning of the Dark Ages of home audio. They were right, it was just the beginning, then came MP3, free downloads and “most folks cannot hear the difference” brainwash.
Another unique characteristic of D-90 is its short life-span. With some luck there is still a chance to get D-50, the very first Discman, in perfect working condition. But ALL original D-90 are dead by now. 100% of surface-mount electrolytic capacitors failed at some point between 1990 and 2015. Bad batch of SMD electrolytics? Probably…
One weird technicality not found in any other Discman is that Right channel has 4.7uF/16V “thru hole” electrolytic capacitor in the signal path, but Left channel has 4.7uF/35V surface-mount cap. This SMD cap (C220 on schematics) fails first. When restoring D-90, I always substitute failed C220 for “thru hole” 4.7uF/16V Rubycon electrolytic. I do not care if I can hear the difference or not, both L and R channels must pass through the same parts.
Below is a step-by-step Resurrection procedure for D-90. This is the first thing you see once you remove the bottom plate:
desolder six CD transport wires (spindle and sled motors and Continue reading Sony D-90