I used to give portable players 'hard and serious' use back when ones that could take that were being made, and felt good about getting a year out of one that cost less than $100. C. 2005, I bought a Sony portable CD for around $35 to replace the previous, comparable Sony that had lasted for 5-6 years, and with which I was very happy, the one I bought in '05 lasted until c. 2012-13. THAT was when I came to understand that they were considered to be "an obsolete product," and that I should have started buying and stockpiling them 20 years ago, as what's currently available seems to be complete junk. When I see something that 'I know for a fact is junk because I've bought a couple of them before' rated as "9.5 on a 10 scale" for quality, and I see another competing product that's only rated at 8 on a 10 scale, I'm thinking that NEITHER are "sensible purchases." To me, one of the weirder things is that in the late '80s and the 1990s, one could readily buy 'cheap knock-offs' that were completely reliable... Curtis, Insignia, GPX and others; I wouldn't waste $1 on one today.
I have a Sony Discman and a Kenwood, both ca. about 2001. They still work, but the sound is only meh. I can't make myself ditch them, though.
Would a better set of headphones help? I got a big improvement in the sound I was getting with my portable player by going from a set of Sony Earclips to a pair of Koss PortaPros. From what I understand, earbuds are the worst sounding types of headphones.
My Koss PortaPros and KPH30i are both 60 ohm headphones and my current player (a Sony NW-A55 Walkman) has no problem driving them. A volume setting of 40-50 (out of 120) is usually loud enough unless the track itself has low volume.
Possibly although if you were upgrade them to something like Bayerdynamic DT 240's or especially 770's you may appreciate the more 'control' a good headphone amp offers over the stock headphone stage.
Those 240's are in the same price range as my HD400S so I'll take a look at 700's again as I was eyeing them for a very long time now thanks for recommendation and advice !
I just hooked my Sony D-225CR up the other day and am loving it! It's been a few years since I've heard it through the stereo. I don't know for sure but it may be a model without op amps, which probably contributes to its transparency. I don't know how it does it, but I'm hearing subtle details that I've never heard before. But it's not like the details you know are there stand out more: they're just there but so are all these other things.
IIRC, the ESP thing buffers the audio. I used to think it degraded the sound a tiny bit, but I could be wrong, so others' mileage may vary!
The extra $19.9K are for the fine sorts of plywood. The DAC technology made a leap in the late 1980s-early 1990s when bitstream DACs were invented, and more or less platoed since then. The D307 has a 1-bit DAC, easily outclassing anything produced in 1980s. Presenly you pay for a name, unless someone decides to use a DAC not intended for audio, in which case you pay for a name and for the worse performance than in a $20 discman. Use ESP, it helps. 10 seconds of ESP require 1.7MB buffer if no lossy compression is used, I wonder was it customary to use buffers this size in 1997? I don't think Sony's user's guide explain this. Windows95 required 4MB just to start, my 1996 machine had 16MB, I don't remember the prices.
I had one of the Sony CD portables that had optical out. Might have been D-E551. I used it mainly for recording digitally to minidisc.
Never have I had more shared experiences with a piece of audio playback equipment than what's been posted here about Sony Discman and similar portable CD players concerning sound quality. Last night I just got the bug to pull out my old 1999 1 bit DAC Sony Discman D-E301 with Limiter/ESP/Digital Mega Bass/Line Out/remote I paid 99ยข at a Goodwill thrift store. Wanted to record the Mega Bass settings listening on my Sony MDR V6 studio monitor headphones of ZZtop's Sharp Dressed Man off the Eliminator CD album (thin kick drum) compared to playing CD on my built in MacMini CD player with Sony cans. Basically seeing if I could use the Discman's audio processing which opened up the stage imaging on the test song than on the original flat CD file. Looked up online the Sony operational manual and noted it's "Line Out" turns off all processing so I hooked up the Sony Discman headphone out to my 2010 MacMini's mic input and recorded with Quicktime at Max Quality (32bit/44.1kHz) and set the Sony Discman volume to around (7) or just before Max can be seen on the dial. With Mega Bass (3 settings can be heard pressing the MBass button 3 times from flat to a full botttom end and third that slightly boosts midrange and stage imaging listening on my Sony cans directly connected to the portable, not the MacMini. With the Discman's Limiter set to "Norm-off?" The maxed out peaks in Audacity showed clipping (removed by applying -.02 Amplify Effect) with the highest of the Mega Bass (3) setting with pronounced stage imaging & kick drum. Audacity Wave Stat had it around -14db RMS (some clipped peaks) with Mega Bass (3), -17dbRMS (2) and -19dbRMS-(1) flat (no clipped peaks). (3) Mega Bass setting had overall 80Hz bass peaks close to -3db but that's due to the original CD mastering /recording of Sharp Dressed Man and the entire album which used punchy synth drums. I may have to test other genre's of music that don't have the '80's synth drum punch. A/B'ed the recording against the actual CD file in Audacity and it turns out the Discman's Mega Bass settings reduces vocals or frequencies from 1kHz-4kHz but I couldn't hear this with the Sony cans connected to the Discman due to having to increase volume. The Discman's Mbass processing does bring out stage image more so than my MacMini.
I agree. Current CD portables sound like crap compared to my Sony Discman. I have the Durabrand portable made in 2004 from Wallmart and it sounds like crap on my Sony MDR V6 cans.
The more recent experiences I've had didn't even give me "sufficient experience" to consider the sound quality; that would require being able to get one to play multiple entire CDs, too onerous a task these days, apparently..
A few people have mentioned using a Discman as a transport, is this possible with these models? If so, how do you bypass the internal DAC? Even if they have a Line Out that still goes through the DAC.
Some CD players had an optical digital output port. With those CD player models, one would be able to use the CD player as a transport.
I think the guy's British. Maybe the used market in England is very generous. You may only get beat up thrift store junk in Merica for prices like that.
This thread inspired me to dig out my old Discman. Miraculously the 4.5 volt wall wart was still in the same box of twisted cords along with a 3.5mm to 2 RCA connector cord for the line out. Doesn't sound half bad actually. I still have a handful of mix-CDRs and releases that aren't available on the streaming services, so will be a fun trip down memory lane. This Discman says it uses a 1-bit DAC. I'm somewhat of a DAC illiterate. Is that standard? Good or bad?
This is my #1 complaint with my 1986 Sony Discman. If a bird farts in the same county as the discman when playing, it might skip, otherwise it works very nicely.
I tested Steve Wilson's Chicago remix of Fancy Colors starting out with the quiet tinkling sounds (both very detailed) and then builds up to where Cetera's vocals and chorus start out loud on my MacMini almost drowning Cetera out. I have to raise the volume way too high past the middle (comfortable position) to match the Discman. Again the problem with different playback devices with various normal loudness levels of the same CD file. The Discman MegaBass setting (3), loudness set to (8) provided more separation in Cetera's vocal by making it quieter compared to the chorus/brass and the tim-tom intros have more punch and bell tone and are less murky as they are flat on the MacMini . Flat setting on the Discman doesn't sound as detailed as the MacMini's overall at the same volume level. This could be specific to only my Discman model and the mixing/mastering of the CD file played. Songs I applied reverb/pitch changes/EQ's in Audacity have increased stage imaging and smoother bass response on the Discman Mbass at (3). My main goal was to confirm what I heard on the Discman using its processing with the same headphones whether the recorded file sounds the same played on the MacMini as it does on the Discman and it does. It's just that it's not as bright in male vocals.
Oh, another thing I found out is the Sony earbuds that came with the Discman had NO BASS AT ALL no matter the Mbass settings. It sounded quite tinny and crappy! So another device that doesn't meet some kind of playback quality standard any dolt would hear. Good set of headphones is a must on any playback device because we all now know there are manufacturers who think those Sony earbuds were just good enough.
Just FYI: My Sony MDR-V6s (more than old enough to vote] sound marvelous connected to my Panasonic SL-SX390.
Can't under estimate the quality provided by 1bit MASH. My '92 Technics SL-PG340 1bit MASH CD player console sounds really good played through my '72 Sansui/'85 Norman Labs big box speakers. Technics is a marketing brand and subsidiary of Panasonic that uses their developed technologies and materials.
