On 11/27/2012 9:35 AM, Audio_Empire wrote:
In article ,
Trevor Wilson wrote:
On 11/24/2012 2:57 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:
"Trevor Wilson" wrote in message
...
I had a chance recently to audition, in my own system, the original Sony
CDP-101 CD player. Boy is it god-awful sounding! Screachy highs, no
soundstage, in other words, downright fatiguing to listen to. It is,
however, built like a tank.
**I keep a CDP101 for people who imagine that all CD players sound the
same. It was, indeed, a shocker.
Absolute proof some people don't know how to maintain legacy equipment so
that it works and sounds as good as new.
**Fortunately, my business is service to audio equipment. I have the
service data, the techniques and test equipment to keep old CD players
(and most other audio equipment) meeting their original specs for many
years. Over the years, I've repaired several dozen CDP101 players. As a
consequence, I have built up a reasonable stock of the odd-ball parts
required for this model.
I have a CDP 101 that meets original spec and sounds great!
**I have a CDP101 that meets it's original specs (I use Sony test discs
and Pierre Verany test discs to verify Red Book performance) and it does
not approach the sound of a quality player like the Marantz CD80.
This did not
happen by osmosis. The major age-dependent degradation of the CDP 101 is
that it starts subtly losing the ability to track seemingly good CDs due to
degradation of specific proprietary Sony chips. This shows up on the bench,
but many non-critical listeners miss it.
**Fortunately I possess the equipment, the knowledge and the service
data to verify the performance of most Red book CD players. I suggest
you acquire a Marantz CD80 and perform your own experiments.
I too have the Pierre Verany test discs and used them to check the
CDP-101 before I returned it. It tracked everything perfectly (except
the biggest gap. Few players will track that - even today). The problems
that I had with the CDP-101 that I was loaned was that it sounded just
as exactly as I remember them sounding when the player was new; I.E.
LOUSY, terrible, unlistenable (by me anyway)!
**I attended the official Australian release of some high end Sony
equipment, including their very nice Esprit amplification, and their
surprisingly good flat driver speakers. The demo was being run with a
CDP101, but I spotted a CDP701 in a corner on static display. I
requested a listen. The demonstrator claimed that the only differences
were cosmetic and operational (and a whole bunch more Dollars).
Nonetheless, he acquiesed. I listened for about 10 seconds and shot the
demonstrator a question: "Are you serious? The CDP701 is a clearly
superior sounding player (and it was)."
The demonstrator admitted that the 701 was superior to the 101. When I
walked out, the 101 was hastily re-connected. Sony had little interest
in trying to sell high priced players.
--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au