Today in year 2008 is the world of MP3 players. Portable CD players (PCDP) or Discman of Sony are almost going into extinction. In Singapore market you will not be able to find PCDPs from big brands like Sony, Philips or Panasonic. Only budget brands still producing and selling PCDPs.

I was once admirer of the very beautiful Apple iPods. In the early days of iPod the price was not attractive to me and also the uploading of WAV format was not supported then. It came the time where Apple launched the very basic and small iPod Shuffle. This white little elegant gadget had no display of any kind other than 1 or 2 LEDs. It was priced attractive, and also allowed the play back of WAV format. As a result, I got myself a 1G Shuffle. Well, the first batch of Shuffles was snapped up in no time, and it took me quite a while to hunt down 1 unit selling at 7-11 convenient shop.  

I remembered happily I went home and ripped some audiophile and classical music recordings into WAV format and uploaded to the new toy. The original intention was to compare the sound quality of the Shuffle to the audiophile CD player. But much to my disappointment, the Shuffle’s performance was far from audiophile standard, and I then used vintage PCDP to do the comparison instead. They were compared on my home audiophile system on speakers. The PCDP won hands down in sound quality.  

I was pondering about the music performance of the Shuffle.Not being a computer expert, I was not doing the most careful ripping that could be done. Might be that messed up things a little. I did not spend time later on the Shuffle, and it was sold to my colleague at a later date. Every day still I am listening to music with my PCDP: better music and I do not need to spend time ripping music.  

Few years later in 2008 came a new colleague who is a computer craze. He asked me one day whether I would be keen to do a blind fold test between Apple iPod and my PCDP. I happily agreed.  

This colleague of mine was using a 5th generation Apple iPod Video. Again I selected WAV as the format for comparison. My colleague went all out for the comparison. In his computer he put in as much vibration isolation as possible, and was using bit by bit CD ripping to prepare the digital files on the hard disk. The music for comparison was Carmina Burama from Deutsche Grammophon.

On the day of the battle of the iPod and PCDP, my Philips PCDP ran into some problems, and a Technics PCDP (which I felt was not as good as the Philips) was used instead. Sound Devices HX-3 was the headphone amplifier, and the headphone used was Sennheiser best HD-650 with Clou Red headphone cable.  

I was not feeling very easy as I do not actually have audiophile ears. So I was blind folded, and my colleague did the swapping of source and the playing of music. Only track 8 Chramer, gip die varwe mir was used. At first with the vocals I could hear the difference but still could not decide which was better. Then came the percussions and at that instant I differentiated the PCDP from the iPod .......... again PCDP won hands down!  

I was wondering then that iPod sound quality should be of a good standard. Source wise WAV should not be too far off from original CD. Could it be then the DA conversion of the iPod not as good as the Technics? But iPod and Technics are almost 10 years apart in terms of manufacturing date, and I assumed also in terms of technology. Could it be the present cost effective and mass production approach degraded the circuit design? What ever it was, I did not figure out a good answer. But let’s look at the much matured CD technology. Audiophiles can still easily differentiate CD and XRCD recordings, and some even can differentiate US cut CDs from others. So it should not be a big surprise PCDP is superior to iPod, right?

Now every working day I spend 40 mins on the train ride, and these are precious time for me to enjoy my classical music. You know at home with 4 young kids it is so difficult to find time for serious music listening. Classical music can run about 10mins to half an hour, and I do not have the need to store thousands of music on MP3 player. Just a few CDs and a PCDP will be a very nice portable set up for me. I save all the CD ripping time, and get the best sound effect.  

Technology advances so quickly. Maybe one day we can get MP3 performance close to CD?

Vintage Portable Compact Disc Players

I was looking at old and vintage portable compact disc players (PCDP) in the year 2004. It started when I was reading posts from a group of audiophile enthusiasts collecting vintage PCDPs and they all agreed that the audio performance of these old gadgets were much superior to the modern ones.  

How old are these vintage portable players? Let’s look at the Sony D-5, which was manufactured in 1984. So in the year 2008 it is already 24 years of age! Many who are into vintage players agree that these old players out perform those models made after 1995. In those years when I was hunting for these old PCDPs, a good condition Sony or Denon PCDP could cost around US$300 on ebay auction!   The more popular models collectors sort after are Sony D-5, D-25, D-35, D-88, D-303, D-515, D-555; Denon DCP-100 and DCP-150; and Technics SL-XP series of players.

 
Sony D-9 (left) and D-40 (right)

So how good actually are these players? For me I connected theses old players to my home speaker system and compared them with Musical Fidelity A-3 CD player and Marantz SA-14 SACD/CD player. Of course these vintage PCDPs are of no match to the full size audiophile grade CD players, but if you take into account the price of the equipment, these PCDPs do perform to a respectable standard.

Denon DCP-100 

The vintage PCDPs do have their reasons of being superior in quality compared to the modern counter parts. In those days manufacturing cost, size of the player and battery life are of not top priority yet. The early Sony players are made of solid metal chassis. A heavier chassis and higher power consumption allow these vintage players to deliver more punchy sound.

The Sony D-5 probably is one of the first PCDP in the market. I do not own one of this, but instead I have a similar D-14. D-14 is made of solid metal, heavy like a brick and runs on 4 size C batteries! The line-out power is astonishing, but the one I have run very hot during playing back of CDs.

D-14 with DC adaptor and Philips 6800 (background)

The 1990 Sony D-35 is an interesting model. It is relatively slim compared to players of the same generation. It has a large LCD display and numerous buttons on the top cover.  The 1991 Sony D-303 is built like a tank, a very nice looking player.

D-35 (left) and D-303 (right) 

The D-555 from Sony, manufactured in the year 1989, is probably the PCDP packed with the most features:  headphone out, line out, 10 level digital bass boost, optical out, 5 band equaliser, DDS and surround sound control, and digital volume control.

D-555 

Sony D-88 (year 1988) is yet another interesting PCDP. It is the smallest in size in that generation, and in fact even smaller in foot print than today’s PCDP. It is designed for 8cm CD playback, but the 8cm CD is difficult to find today. Although designed for 8cm CD, the D-88 can also play back the standard 12cm CD. There is a button for user to adjust the laser pick up in order to play 12cm CD, but then when in this mode the player is no longer portable as the CD is exposed outside the player, like a tree cutter!

D-88 

Sony PCDPs are more innovative in design and of great variety. In comparison the Denon design is more down to earth, but equally well built. The Denon D-100 and D-150 are very sort after by collectors. The SL-XP series of Technics are relatively slim and small compared to Sony and Denon, and use extensive plastic construction. One of the Technics model SL-XP 150 has a very special mid range performance, which makes vocal listening really pleasant. However, in terms of musical performance, personally I much prefer the Philips AZ 68XX series of player. The sonic character of the Philips is full of punch, well balance all around performance, and can be powerful and delicate depending on the music. However the Philips players are not as reliable as the rest, and the feel of the construction are not as good.

SL-XP6 (left) and SL-XP1 (right) 

If you were to ask me is it worth collecting these vintage players? Well, good audio performance as they might be, these are very old electronic gadgets that are unlikely to last very long. I feel that the risk of these players breaking down is so high that if you need to pay for quite a fair bit then it is not worth collecting. Modern branded players though the audio output is not as superior, but I feel that they are decent enough for most purposes. And from the portable point of view the newer players are much smaller in size, lighter in weight and the batteries last much longer.

Philips AZ6848 

Few years back I still get to see these new generation PCDPs on sale from brand like Sony, Panasonic and Philips. But today in year 2008, or even in 2007, the small and minute MP3 players have become the main stream portable music listening gadgets, the branded PCDPs are no longer selling in most shops.  

Today I still carrying a portable set up with vintage PCDP, a Sound Devices headphone amplifier and a Sennheiser HD 25-1 closed headphone, for me listening to music on the train. I don’t really care about the weight, but the music performance is fantastic, and I still have lots of vintage PCDPs to last me for very very long.    

24 years of Discman:  1984-2008

I like listening to classical music and my friend who is an expert in hifi system recommended me a system, which I like very much and has been enjoying music with it.

At present my system set up is as follows:

Source:       

                           Marantz SA-14 SACD player on Goldmund cones
                           Musical Fidelity A-3 CD player on BDR Mk 4 cones  

Pre-amplifier:   

                            Bryston BP-25

Amplider:       

                            Bryston 4B SST Silver

Speakers:       

                            Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home

Interconnects:   

                            SA-14 to preamp - DIY pure silver balance and RCA
                            A3 to preamp - Z2 Au/Au RCA                         
                            Preamp to Amp - DIY pure silver balance

Speaker cables:  

                             SonicArt, silver coated copper cables

Power cables:     

                            SA-14 - AFA Zeus II                                                                                                                      A-3 - AFA Zeus II
                            Preamp -    JPS Lab        
                            Amp - SonicArt  

Signal conditioner:  

                            Castle PLF-200, power amp connects direct

The charateristics of this system is neutral. However, good recordings will sound good on this system while the bad ones will sound horrible. This system serves me well, especially for classical music like symphonies and concertos. Female vocals are not so sweet. Sound stage is not that wide and deep. So far I am quite happy with this set up and is unlikely to upgrade for quite a while. 

My on-the-move hifi system consists of a set of not-so-portable portable CD Player (PCDP), headphone amplifier and headphones.

I am using vintage/old PCDP running on AA NiMH rechargable batteries. I have been a long time supporter of Philips and find their PCDPs have very all round and well balance sonic signature. There was a point of time I was crazy collecting old vintage PCDPs but not any more. The older PCDPs have much better sound quality compared to modern days design. I believe in those days power consumption and size were not the top priority compared to today's designs. As a results the music they delivered has much more punch and energy. However, due to the old age of these well made vintage stuff, they tend to break down and spares are generally not available. Therefore unless you are a vintage gadget lover, I would not recommend collecting these stuff if the price is too high. Anyway I am still happily using my vintage PCDPs with some anti-skid capability.

Although I very much prefer listnening music with my speaker system, having three young kids at home it make me very difficult to do so. Sad to say that nowadays I spent most of my time listening music using my portable system during the journey to and back from work and in the office.

In my present portable system, the PCDP is connected to the Sound Devices headphone amplifier HX-3 using the headphone out or audio out. The amplifier will then drive a Sennheiser HD 25-1 70 ohms professional DJ close headphone.

While open headphone will give a more natural sound, a close headphone is better for travel as it cuts off some surrounding noise. As a result, the volumn can be keep as low as possible and will not cause damages to hearing. The HD 25-1 that I am currently using though good in performance, but being fairly expensive so may not be value-for-money. The design of the HD 25-1 is quite different. The two head supports can be open out. The left side of the headphone can be tilted up for one-ear listening. The flexibility of the design allows wearing of the headphones in all kind of situation, but also made it not so easy to wear as there are too many adjustments available.

   
                                Headbands wide open                                                                        Left headphone folded 

After using the HD 25-1 for almost 4 years I had the stock steel cable replaced by an original Sennheiser replacement cable (part no: 74532). This cable is much more flexible than the stock cable but is terminated with straight 1/4-inch plug. There is a similar cable for the 600-ohm version of the HD 25 but according to the catalogue the cable is also steel cable. This one I am using is so flexible that I believe could be OFC. It is much longer than the stock HD 25-1 cable and the sound signature is more refined. 

The interconnect I am using from the PCDP to the headphone amp are DIY pure silver mini-to-mini cable and Ultimate Link solid core pure silver mini-to-TRS cable.

For those who want to know more about headphones can visit the following sites:

www.sgheadphones.net
www.head-fi.org