Amadana CD Player

Another listening session, and a small "discovery" - Amadana is not a Discman as I initially presumed, it should be used as a desktop CD player. Since Amadana has no internal battery, this discovery seems pretty evident to me right now... With h/p plugged direct into Amadana the tunes/sound is as exciting as reheated plate of macaroni'n'cheese. In short - Bad! With Ray Samuels Hornet between Amadana and headphones (and Amadana volume at Max) things stay about the same, be it 60Ohm HD-570 or 40Ohm ATH-T200. With Hornet's gain switched to Low things get better, I do not have to push volume over 12:00 and music becomes recognizable as 'music'. Digital-out into Schiit Modi brings out major improvement, now I can finally sit back, relax, and enjoy my favorite tune

As Discman substitute Amadana is definitely not worth the trouble: $125(Anadana)+$100(Modi)+$375(Hornet) looks ugly and does not sound much better than my $100 Sony D-90. But as a cutie CD spinner plugged into any modern integrated with digital-in Amadana has a good chance of winning a few hearts.

BUT: competition is already in: similar-looking $38 Qoosea Portable and $61 Monodeal CW605 offer portability and headphones for less

 

Those who want something pretty may choose to buy a painting instead.

The Qoosea Portable is not bad though. Two headphone outputs, USB out, Bluetooth out. They don't specify the version of Bluetooth, but whatever the version is, maximum bitrate is probably limited to about 345 Kbps, so the Redbook audio will be recompressed. I don't think this player has LDAC.

There is no SACD or DVD-Audio compatibility, instead the player is bundled with "Music Starting from Prenatal Education: 100 thousand pregnant mothers choice, away from the radiation, perfect for fetal education tool." They may have a point: two headphone outputs -> mutual enjoyment -> prenatal education.

 

I forgot to mention yet another pointer that Amadana should be used as a 'desktop' CD player (or rather CD Transport for those who care about SQ), not a Discman: its 3.5mm headphone jack is at its back, next to Digital-Out. Ever since I've learned about the existence and subsequently plunged into a 'rabbit-hole' of Hi-End Audio, I saw this mentioned pretty often that if your component's On/Off switch is at the back of the box - do Not use it but keep it always On (not a Rule though, my 'olive series' Naim Audio boxes had switches at the front panel, but they had to be kept On at all times to sound their best, and re-capped every 7-10 years )
Following this 'rule' headphone should Not be used on Amadana.


It is surprising though that it does not have Line-out and no option for IR remote, it is there for most Sony Discmans ... but now I am trying to find an excuse as to why I was fooled

I am going to bring my decent headphones for the final test on how Amadana's Digital-Out compares to Digital-out of The King, Sony D-555. I do not expect any differences though, these tiny spindle motors are not VRDS transports of Esoteric spinners which Do make a difference for CD replay

To be continued...

 

Hi @Jorge, can you shed some lights since you are very knowledgeable on Discman.
http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-discman-are-these-the-last-models.7040/