I recently purchased a cheap CD player in order to see what you can
get for $10. After noting that it sounds just like the other CD
players I've purchased over the years, I took it apart and counted the
components. As you read what's in there, keep reminding yourself that
this player has a retail price of $10, and this is not a closeout or
teaser price, since I can go back today and buy another one for the
same price! There are 3 assemblies:

1. The case:

1. bottom with battery door
2. Top with 6 switch actuators and a window for the display
3. The pop-up lid with a plastic window whose sole purpose seems to
be to allow you to watch the disc spin around.

2. The PCB:

This is a single-sided epoxy-paper circuit board with parts mounted on
both sides. The part numbers for each component are screened onto the
side on which they are mounted. On the bottom:

31 chip capacitors
81 chip resistors
6 surface mount transistors
3 LSI integrated sircuits
1 MSI IC (a dual op-amp used to drive the headphones.)

On the top:

6 metal film resistors
17 electrolytic capacitors
7 tiny inductors
8 switches
2 jacks
1 volume control pot
LCD display attached by a flex strip
a 10:1 divider whose purpose I can't fathom
21 bare wire jumpers
3 insulated wire jumpers

3. The laser assembly:

The laser assembly consists of a plastic 'chassis' containing 2
motors, one to spin the CD and the other to move the laser sled back
and forth on its steel rod. The motors are connected to the PCB
through a 6 wire bundle, and the laser sled through a flex strip. I
have not yet opened up the laser sled to see what's in it, but I will
sooner or later (it's a one way operation; it will never go back
together again.)

The fact that one can make a pcb with 200 parts on it for $10 is a
miracle. Adding in the laser assy and putting everything
together--even by automatic machinery--is beyond my understanding.
What could the factory cost of this player be?

Norm Strong

"normanstrong" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a cheap CD player in order to see what you can
get for $10. After noting that it sounds just like the other CD
players I've purchased over the years, I took it apart and counted the
components. As you read what's in there, keep reminding yourself that
this player has a retail price of $10, and this is not a closeout or
teaser price, since I can go back today and buy another one for the
same price!

snip a whole bunch of unbelieveable stuff

The fact that one can make a pcb with 200 parts on it for $10 is a
miracle. Adding in the laser assy and putting everything
together--even by automatic machinery--is beyond my understanding.
What could the factory cost of this player be?

Norm Strong

Hi Norm, my brother in law was a QC engineer for RCA/GE/Thompson/Whatever it
is this week he he. I remember him talking about the complete circuit
boards from China for the 21 inch and 25 inch television sets. I'm not sure
they ever used these in production sets, but the vendor would supply the
boards fully assembled and tested for less than 22 bux each in quantities of
100,000 or more. If you bought a lot of them, the price got down into the
mid teens. I too am absolutely amazed by the portable CD players. The out
the door factory cost has to be less than two or three bux. Or maybe they
are selling these as loss leaders, hoping you will buy a cd or two while
you're in the store. They truly are disposable, if ANYTHING goes wrong, but
as long as you don't drop 'em, I think they will play for many years. My
daughter had a Lennox Sound portaable cd player we bought her 10 years ago,
it is still working, although I don't consider its sound to be nearly good
enough for critical listening. Britney Spears, however, comes thru loud and
loud.

Tom

"normanstrong" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a cheap CD player in order to see what you can
get for $10. After noting that it sounds just like the other CD
players I've purchased over the years, I took it apart and counted the
components. As you read what's in there, keep reminding yourself that
this player has a retail price of $10, and this is not a closeout or
teaser price, since I can go back today and buy another one for the
same price! There are 3 assemblies:

1. The case:

1. bottom with battery door
2. Top with 6 switch actuators and a window for the display
3. The pop-up lid with a plastic window whose sole purpose seems to
be to allow you to watch the disc spin around.

2. The PCB:

This is a single-sided epoxy-paper circuit board with parts mounted on
both sides. The part numbers for each component are screened onto the
side on which they are mounted. On the bottom:

31 chip capacitors
81 chip resistors
6 surface mount transistors
3 LSI integrated sircuits
1 MSI IC (a dual op-amp used to drive the headphones.)

On the top:

6 metal film resistors
17 electrolytic capacitors
7 tiny inductors
8 switches
2 jacks
1 volume control pot
LCD display attached by a flex strip
a 10:1 divider whose purpose I can't fathom
21 bare wire jumpers
3 insulated wire jumpers

3. The laser assembly:

The laser assembly consists of a plastic 'chassis' containing 2
motors, one to spin the CD and the other to move the laser sled back
and forth on its steel rod. The motors are connected to the PCB
through a 6 wire bundle, and the laser sled through a flex strip. I
have not yet opened up the laser sled to see what's in it, but I will
sooner or later (it's a one way operation; it will never go back
together again.)

The fact that one can make a pcb with 200 parts on it for $10 is a
miracle. Adding in the laser assy and putting everything
together--even by automatic machinery--is beyond my understanding.
What could the factory cost of this player be?

Norm Strong


You've just defined "dumping".

On 8/17/04 12:03 AM, in article , "t.hoehler"
wrote:


Hi Norm, my brother in law was a QC engineer for RCA/GE/Thompson/Whatever it
is this week he he. I remember him talking about the complete circuit
boards from China for the 21 inch and 25 inch television sets. I'm not sure
they ever used these in production sets, but the vendor would supply the
boards fully assembled and tested for less than 22 bux each in quantities of
100,000 or more. If you bought a lot of them, the price got down into the
mid teens. I too am absolutely amazed by the portable CD players. The out
the door factory cost has to be less than two or three bux. Or maybe they
are selling these as loss leaders, hoping you will buy a cd or two while
you're in the store. They truly are disposable, if ANYTHING goes wrong, but
as long as you don't drop 'em, I think they will play for many years. My
daughter had a Lennox Sound portaable cd player we bought her 10 years ago,
it is still working, although I don't consider its sound to be nearly good
enough for critical listening. Britney Spears, however, comes thru loud and
loud.

I have dealt with electronics in low to high volume - and below a certain
volume most "Low Cost Countries" contract manufacturers won't even touch it.

The large consumer manufacturers are spending $2.2M for the boards you
quoted - for a low volume consumer manufacturer the entire budget will be
less than 1/2 of that (sometimes 1/4 of that!) for a product to be developed
- the volume just is not there!

A $15 board in 500,000 quantities, cost $22 in 100,000 might cost $50 or
$100 in 10,000 piece parts - and $150-200 in 1000 pieces - the PCB itself
might run $150 for a run of 10 done on a quick turn!

On 17 Aug 2004 22:57:42 GMT, "Harry Lavo" wrote:


You've just defined "dumping".

Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. "Low wages" for certain,
but it may also come down to companies that do not
have bloated and highly overpaid executive structures
that seem to be becoming more and more prevalent
among corps in the US.

On 16 Aug 2004 23:06:45 GMT, "normanstrong"
wrote:

I recently purchased a cheap CD player in order to see what you can
get for $10. ....

I've been amazed by precision electro-mechanical goods
prices I've seen for quite a while. 200 GB disks for $200 ?
But you may want to run an objective test or two on that CD
player before judging it to work well. I bought a very cheap
portable CD player a while back and played a test disk
on it, one with a series of tones. It mangled everything above
6K or so (I don't remember the exact starting point).