I'm looking at PCDPs from the '90s. Hoping to find one with a matte non-metallic finish, some shock protection, and AA batteries. Sound quality is nice but I don't want to spend more than ~$100, so the D-515 and other prized PCDPs are out. From reading Duncan's review on Head-Fi, the D-465 looks like a great option except I am not a fan of the aesthetics. By looking through a bunch of Discman models I have assembled this list: - D-231 - D-232 - D-235 - D-245 - D-345 - D-265 All I know is that these have ESP and are available for relatively cheap on ebay. Are any of these especially good/bad in terms of sound quality or any other aspect? Anything else I should consider (doesn't have to be Sony)? Or should I just get the ugly D-465? Big appreciation for any info or pointers to other sources of info.
Personally I like the newer players like the D-E220. Do you realise that ESP can degrade the sound quality as the audio isn't kept in the memory at full CD resolution ? One thing I like about these players is that you can turn the ESP off and even then they are very shock resistant. Much much better than my first portable CD player that was a Sanyo. Another thing I like is the battery life that is much better than the earlier players. I'm not sure if they were ever made in a non metallic finish though. The one I have to hand is a Blue-Grey Metallic finish. The best thing about this one was that it only cost about £5 at a car boor sale
No I wasn't aware. You sure there aren't any ESP implementations that store the audio at full resolution? Good to know. Shock resistance without ESP seems like a great feature... The Philips AZ6832 is supposed to have something like this.
Maybe some very late ones. If you do the maths, 44100 16 bit samples x stereo means you would need about 176Kbytes of RAM to store each second of uncompressed audio. Compare that with the era the player was made. In the 1990s comparable devices like pocket computers typically only came with something like 64KBytes.
A few weeks back I did a little experiment: with ESP in "Off" position and while listening to CD, I started vigorously shaking the Discman. Actually, I touched Vortex shaker with it. Hi-frequency shaking is used to mix content in microcentrifuge tubes, there is no way laser is able to track CD while being 'vortex-ed'. There is a chance to break laser mechanism, but as @Longman pointed out, these Discmans are dime a dozen. Results: while being Vortex-ed the tune continued for three more seconds, then stopped. With ESP On, music stayed for another 10-15 sec. Conclusion: ESP is never Off in some Discmans. I know that Panasonics from mid-90-ies had the option to actually turn off their 10-20-30-...sec memory buffer. You could actually hear sound quality degradation from "CD quality" of 1-bit converter to something resembling MP3 of today. My advice: search for a "discman lot" on eBay and for under $50 you get a box of Discmans from your list. Some of them will have "HOLD" slider onto ON (the easiest fix ever), some will need batt contacts cleaned and re-soldered, some (of course!) will be seriously dead. In terms of fit'n'finish Technics/Panasonic polycarbonate bodies have much more 'expensive' feel than Sonys. I am watching this listing: Panasonic (Technics) SL-NP1 & SL-NP40 Portable CD Player (2 players, both work!) Good example of 16-bit and 1-bit DACs side by side. Without ESP or '10-sec Memory' so sound quality is decent.
An interesting experiment and results. I wonder if the difference was that 3 seconds could be stored uncompressed or with little compression while ten seconds required heavier compression. Regarding Panasonics I have a SL-SX390 here with 45 seconds anti-skip. Unfortunately it sounds like an MP3 player and unlike all the Sonys I have had there doesn't appear to be a method of turning off the Anti Skip System.
No, it sounded as $hitty with ESP on or off, myguess the switch was just a gimmick. Those in charge already knew that we "cannot hear the difference" MP3 proved that they were almost right, most of us can but do not care! I was talking about SL-S360 line, it sounded Bad with Anti-Shock engaged, listenable when Off but there was not much of rubber grommets for the laser, so even walking with it was not advisable
If you plan to use a Discman on the go, the only anti-skip protection that really worked for me while running for the bus and train was really the 20 second G-Protection, the 10 second ESP sorta works but not really skip proof. The 3 to 6 sec early versions were no good. MD Walkman implementation of anti-skip was vastly superior right from the beginning. You can just dup the CD onto an MD (ATRAC) / Hi-MD (PCM). Of course a modern Hi-Res Walkman best with native DSD playback (DFF/DSF files ripped off SACDs) will solve all these problems, and Sony's bluetooth wireless remote (RMT-NWS20) can be clipped onto clothing or onto the cord just like the old inline remotes. Well if you are really after good sound you wouldn't even look at 1-bit DAC and ESP machines to begin with, but in practice the old stuff was only good as desktop players imo (like for working at the library / school setting or sitting on the couch).
My first "portable" player a Sanyo wouln't even work upside down. I still recall an instructor trying to use a no name PCDP for a line dancing class back in about 1996 when it became popular over here. It ended up with someone having to hold the player as it couldn't cope with the vibrations through the floor
