Hi folks I know there's a bunch of knowledgeable posters here so i'm throwing a bottle at sea here. I've received an absolutely mint D311 today which was supposedly working but... It behaves quite strangely : for one, it has a hardtime reading the TOC, but it does eventually only to stop reading the 1st track after 20/30 secs. Can't skip to a different track from there. One thing i did notice after taking the cd out for inspection, is that the lens was stuck halfway into its rail (?), bear with me i'm French so technical terms may fail me, so i did force it back a little so it would get as close as possible to the center of the unit. Not sure the lens starts reading from the center or the edge but i did it anyway. I might have damaged something doing it, won't know for sure til i open it up. So there's my first issue. 2nd issue : i get sound from only one channel which is weird as I get beeps in both and the line out gives me stereo sound as well. Like i said, the unit is mint but i assume time has taken its toll on some components. Caps maybe, for the headphones issue ? Lens, laser or dust and solidified grease for the reading problem ? I've just recently started servicing walkman and simple turntables so my skills are very limited but i'm making progress and i have the will and tools to help me step my game up. Any hint or tips would be appreciated. Thanks ya'll.
I just do entry-level repairs and with CD players I check out the grease in the rails or gear. I try to clean it out and replace it with a recommended replacement. My experience is the grease gets hard and the laser sled can't move. This unit may be different. The service manual is on HiFi Engine for free, it may help. https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/d-311.shtml
CDs play from the centre outwards. That way the laser will start in the same place with both normal size and mini CDs. I agree with Mister X that many CD transport problems, especially ones like the one you describe, are caused by dried up grease.
I checked out and the grease is not the culprit here. Still smooth. Thanks for pointing it out though.
Recap it and then get back to us. ANY early 90s Sony palmtop/personal device usually has those bad surface mount caps that leak. Both the D-311 and the D-321 usually need recapping... along with almost any Handycam, Discman, Walkman, Watchman, or Video Walkman from 1989-1995. That year bracket I gave you sure casts a wide net. The sound issue is definitely cap related. Either you have a bad cap on the headphone stage, or a cap has corroded somewhere and broken a connection or trace. I'd say the unit will be fine after a recap.
Does anyone have the shopping list for caps for the D311? I also have this model and doesn't seem to want to play a disc, just the dreaded 00. Laser returns home fine and disc spins fast and clockwise.
The list will be in the Sony D311 Service Manual. https://elektrotanya.com/sony_d-311.pdf/download.html This link seems to work. These will mostly be the small SMD capacitors that are more difficult to work on. Good luck. And please report back on how the work went or to ask advice etc,. One tip that I read was to "open up" those tiny new SMD caps, you can fold the legs out then remove the square brown plastic base, then fold out the legs straight so that the capacitor looks a lot like the bigger "hole through" variety. Then this modified capacitor is easier to tack in place on those small landings / pads that have been cleaned and desoldered and freshly tinned. (I will do this next time... I shorted out a D-211 a few years ago and ended up just throwing it away. Just $20 at the time. But with an orange backlight that runs on the 2AA with a momentary light on button! Cool! Supposed to sound really good too.)
oh man that’s a lot… i managed to check the mA to see if it matched what’s on the laser label (31.7mA) and it was 30mA.. so pretty close but lower so could be bad laser? Dunno if 1.7mA is out of the safe range. There is a place in Lebanon that has some discman lasers (specifically KSS350A) but there’s no way to pay them without resorting to Western Union…
Better to take lasers from other lower cost Discman. I am not familiar / forgot what the deal was with D-311 laser, it is highly unlikely to be unique or specific to only that model. (Though D-35, D-303, D-66, DT-66 have the Sanyo SF89 that is unique to them etc., etc,.) Back around 2006 there was a web site that had charts of Sony Discman lasers used on each model. It was possible to simply select same laser on other models and search e-bay. This would reveal cheap $5 Discman players that had same laser and spindle motor as a "donor" unit. I did that back around 2007 with a D-465 (Asian version of D-475) which had a bad spindle motor. That website with charts must exist somewhere on Archive.org. I have no idea what it was called. But head-fi.org is where it was posted back in the 2006 time frame. Perhaps on their mega thread The DIY Discman Repair Thread which has been going since 2003... and is still going! My old posts are there too, along with my success in motor transplanting etc,.
Just an afterthought, in case readers don't know, Master Kaosun can repair any Discman for a few hundred bucks $US. Usually much lower cost and less hassle to simply send D-311 to him for full proper professional restoration. Okay, I know most don't wanna spend the money, thinking they can do a quick fix themselves, but one has to get real at some point. These old Discman machines are often so degraded and broken by now that it can require heavy duty skills to repair them. Kaosun is a bargain considering his amazing abilities to simple fix any issue.
d311 best portable sony there is. prefer d777=tube sound. but it's not worth it. unless you like the 90's cd sound
That's true! I personally think it's much harder to repair a Discman than a Walkman. There's just a lot more electronics skills involved. Unless it's a center gear and recap, I'm certainly screwed I can tell ya that much. Props to those who can break out that scope and diagnose at a chip level. Really? I always liked the D-321 better... but both the 311 and 321 sound average to me. I really prefer the sound of the older D-9, D15, D303. The 311 has a 9mw headphone output, so that's a good thing, but so does the D-9... and the D-9 has the older 16bit linear DAC, rather than the '1bit' dac. To me, the 16bit dac has more character and a nicer sound.
The D311 is certainly a good model, and I wouldn't give up on it. But, I wouldn't pay that much for a laser. I just don't think it's worth it to pay $120 for a laser when you could very well have more problems waiting for you thereafter. It could very well be that the replacement laser is poor quality too or not pre-adjusted... happens all the time. Also, Kaosun is a great option, but weigh the price he's going to charge vs the actual value of the device. I think what you need is the ability to troubleshoot properly. So, What I would do is get a donor unit. Here's a complete unit for $50 from Japan... This will keep costs sensible and give you the opportunity to swap parts around and diagnose. If I ordered that D311 from Japan, it would still come in cheaper than the $120 and you'd get a complete unit in great shape with power adapter, remote, etc. My two cents... PS. I did a review of the D321 a few years ago.
Good find on Buyee there, I have bought many times from there, the D311 I have wasn’t from there though. My only issue with this I could have the exact same issue, another unit with a dead/weak laser. My unit has all accessories already so no added value there either. I’ve tried to source the laser from several places, one in particular being extremely cheap from Lebanon. But I need someone from there to buy and send to me.
