Recommended old PCDP brands?

Hello. Recently I have been looking at getting a second hand PCDP preferably a black one of the early to mid 90s era. But one thing I am interested to know (as I have not experienced too many players and their differences) is if there are any companies that made generally on average better products than others?

We've got the likes of Sony (Discman), Panasonic, Sanyo, Philips, Aiwa, Kenwood, JVC... all are generally reputable brands of the time but I otherwise have no clue so far as PCDPs go if some brands were better and others worse in terms of sound quality etc. Also the kind of features they advertise on the case like Sanyo's 'Bass Xpander' or Panny's 'MASH' are they generally gimmicks or genuine useful things? I don't need a top of the line model just anything that isn't considered 'bad'. Thanks for the advice!

 

I prefer the newer Sonys.

My first Personal Compact Disc was a Sanyo. While it worked it used four AA batteries up in a short time,
and was quite prone to bumps and jogs.

I later bought a Sony similar to this which was an improvement in every way.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/197212515357
In fact it was so good I bought me sister one as a present as well.
Since then I have bought (because I collect such things)

• A Panasonic which sounds rather "gritty". If a player has shock protection like Sony's ESP make sure there is a way of turning it off as it degrades the sound. The Sony I linked to has a switch in the disc compartment.
  
  
• A Philips which is prone to skipping
  
  
• An Aiwa which is quite good probably because it uses Sony parts.

A genuine question would be if Sony has ever made a bad PCDP. There again the early ones were far more expensive than the Sanyo I mentioned (which was about £50 when I got it).

One last thought. Don't think you have any chance of fixing a CD player. Buy a working one.

 

Good thing you mention that. I was close to buying a Philips for cheap but what stopped me was the fact it used four cells instead of two.

I am far from a technician but am surprised to read this. Are they really so? I thought they would be significantly easier to fix than a tape deck that has plenty more things that could (and will) go wrong.

As a side note since you mention you collect them: have you bought any brand new PCDPs? I normally wouldn't be interested in such new ones but there is one brand in particular called Klim that has gained my interest - they make good looking players with many features and apparently are genuinely good products for the price you pay. I haven't yet bought one though.

 

The difference is that while many problems with tape players will cause them to work but out of spec (e.g. excessive wow and flutter) a CD player will either work or it won't. Quite often a faulty one won't even read the disc table of contents. What do you do next ?

Member @Jorge used to refurbish CD players for himself and had things like an oscilloscope for adjusting "laser eye patterns" but even he had to send some off to an expert.

No I haven't tried any new ones. The reviews on Amazon seem to be quite positive.

What I have done is to buy "cosmetically challenged" players which obviously go for lower prices. My main aim is simply to have a Spare, a Spare for the Spare etc, although the Philips was bought after reading good things about the sound quality, while others have just been picked up when seen for a low price at car boot sales etc.

 

Digital ain't it? It either works or not. Interesting read though thanks. If the disc TOC can't be read that's real bad, would that be basically a fault of the internal processor? Surely that shouldn't be a laser issue.

 

There are a great many issues. Often it is a failure due to SMD capacitor leakage. Reading through Kaosun's repair site forums one also gets an insight into the many curious problems that arise. If you search Kaosun and head-fi.org you may find the old discussion threads there. It makes for depressing reading. Yeah. A lot can... and does... go wrong.

Another brand not to overlook is Denon. The Denon DCP-100 and DCP-150 were their king models. (Though Kaosun can take a DCP-50 and add an AD1868 DAC and also a better headphone amp. The result is better than any portable CD player that was ever made, apparently.)

Kenwood DCP-92 was their king. DAC was PCM67.

My goodness. For those not too concerned with audio and what DAC was used, the best advice might simply be, go by looks. What old CD player do you like the look of? Then start reading about that model... and what can / does go wrong with it. The classic Sony Kings of audio quality were usually considered D-25, D-303 and D-555. D-555 uses dual PCM66 DAC though later models may have used PCM67 also.

Most of these players were ugly plastic junk. A handful were works of art in metal. I know which ones I would like to look at all day... and maybe put in a display case.