Sony Discmans

Hi Pulovr. Thanks for reply. That certainly looks more straight forward to me. Am going away for a couple of weeks. Will have a try when i get back. Greetings from England.

 

I don't know what possessed me to pull a trigger on this one today on epay
but... Maybe because it's the very first one Discman, even without this tag yet,
Was declared as untested so will see.

 

Yep, since it was the first discman it wasn't really portable due to necessity to have this external case,
it's actually a battery one + giving some protection as well.

This is EPB-9LC Battery case:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-So...315448?hash=item44398cf5f8:g:~CUAAOSwroJcmsam

There are some other power "attachments" to D-50:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-D-5A-...278190?hash=item41ff6e132e:g:ccYAAOSwFLpcu2nG

 

Which model are you looking for?

Actually there may be problems with those old CD portables: Laser pickup may deteriorate over the years and you will find out only when you've got it in hand and play..
I've recently bought 2 Sony's (declared working) they sort of do, yes, but they skip sometime
showing that pickups are tired.
Again I bought them rather cheap (10-20 pounds) and not going to restore them.
Apart from lasers there might be some other surprises - old electronics is an old electronics.
After 3 misses in a row I was going to damp them and stop all this old mess
but somehow couldn't resist scoring this D-50.
Because of price in the first place.
P.S> No, probably there is more to that: even if it's not working which would be excusable
for this 33 years old lady - to have a feel of this electronic piece of art - being the first ever portable CD player back in the day (1984) meant a lot I believe..
Plus it's a multibit one which appeals to me as well.

 

I see what you mean but CDs have this specifics: if lasers are dying with time/"miles on" there is almost no way to help but to replace pickups.
For many stationary CD players new pickups are cheap - no problem with that -
but not sure about portables. Haven't yet delved into that issue.
And some rare pickups for stationary ones nowadays could cost really silly money.

 

The laser in a CD player has to be able to move in two dimension to both track and focus. One type were notorious for using moulded plastic hinges in the mechanism to do this. If you've ever had a plastic box using them you will know that eventually they will break.

Loads of info here

http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/sam/cdfaq.htm

 

What I read about Discmans at forums: usually 3-4 years of an everyday frequent
use and lasers may start to "fade".
All CD player lasers could be revived for rather a short time by increasing their feeding DC voltage
directly in the pickup scheme - it's adjustable in most cases AFAIK but it doesn't last long and they will soon need to be replaced.
Again for a vast majority of "big ones" it's not a big issue - pickups and even the whole transport mechs can be replaced for cheap - a lot of them on ebay as spares -Sony KSS different models, etc.
For Discmans it should be explored further of course
but I think I'd rather take a simpler approach - dispose of 3 players I have bought in a row -2 skip (Sony), 1 is down at arrival (JVC), all were declared as working at Ebay - simply throw them away or give them to somebody willing to dig.
Will see what this D-50 shows.

Yep, I used to think the same but it occured that the laser diode normal emission in CD players
had its normal working life span before diodes start to "fade" gradually.
Apart of course from mechanical parts' normal wear mentioned by Longman. Old caps' issues maybe, etc.
Now I'd prefer to score either a NOS or as little used as possible Discman but how are you expected to know the latter?

 

D-50 is built like a tank! No leaking electrolytics of later models, gears for sled mechanism never crumble, even grease seems to be less prone to hardening than in later Discmans. D-50 is a small miracle, hopefully yours will arrive in working condition. Even spindle motor is a custom-made thing, so there is no need for a new cheapie from Mabuchi!

Laser aging is a "fact of life" but it is seriously overrated. There was a time when it was easier and cheaper to just slap in a new laser than to pull out an oscilloscope and check what is wrong with a player.

 

jorge, you got pm

 

Thank you, mate!

Hope so but I found out that somehow it had reverse DC power polarity with Center "-"
and if attention not paid to that fact somebody could have damaged it.
Yes, I read that about D-50, that's this machine is "hard to kill".
Are those pics of an disassembled D-50?

P.S. A-ha, got a closer look - D-5 - the same machine..

CX20133 multibit DAC - made by Sony itself?
KSS-110A Sony pickup - ebay doesn't know about it at the first glance.

 

True! Actually, all good Discmans have center pin as negative. By the time they realized that "ground" is also a "shielding", they also figured how to make cheap Discmans. Sound quality of most "center-positive" Discmans is indistinguishable from MP3

 

Warning!!! Be gentle with the latches on the case lid!!! Mine broke off almost immediately

 

Hi Mystic Traveler. A very nice D5. I bought the D-100 back in the day. Unfortunately not working a y more. Enjoy your D-5.

 

Thank you, mate! Yes, she (it?) has its own beauty.

They asked 49800 Yen back in 1984, circa $450 = 1100 nowdays, I was told that up untill maybe 90s
Discman's were a sort of luxury for ordinary people.

 

Thank you, mate, yeap, have the same feeling that they are fragile, so almost never close the lid
complete with "clicks".