Inside an ES CDP

[Lazarus Short]

I bought this Sony ES carousel CD player at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. I set it up in the basement with a Sony A/V receiver and a pair of Sony speakers. Had to strip speaker wire with scissors to do it. It worked fine, and later I found the remote in the garage. $30. Brought it home, and it didn't work. Yesterday, I took it to the shop, opened the top cover and watched it work. The carousel worked like a champ, so the mech was fine, but I noticed that when a CD clamped into the transport, it did not spin. Over and over, not even a cursory initial spin. Dead motor! I took a look and it was plain to see that the motor was integrated with a circuit board and surface-mount components - a nightmare to replace. I saved a few things to offer on eBay, like the front panel and remote, which are pristine.

Here's what I found out about the innards, good and bad:

GOOD
really nice grease
good quality caps
the carousel mechanism
great SQ while it worked

BAD
standard cheap circuit boards
lots of plastic
top and bottom covers were the only metal structural elements
lack of separate analog and digital power supplies
lack of brass (or any metal) inserts in the plastic for screws (used to be common)

Compared to my not-too-much-older Sony DAC, which was very robust, this thing is a joke. I'm guessing"ES" became marketing hype very quickly.

 

[Northwinds]

Question for you Brother...

I have a Sony CDP-203 in the garage not being used at the moment, looks exactly like the CDP-203 ES so what is the real difference? It's heavy as hell and looks pretty nice

 

[Lazarus Short]

Question for you Brother...

I have a Sony CDP-203 in the garage not being used at the moment, looks exactly like the CDP-203 ES so what is the real difference? It's heavy as hell and looks pretty nice

Get your hands on the ES version, pop the hoods, and have a look at the entrails. I would guess better caps, a trim upgrade and a higher price - just like Dee-troit.

 

[Elite-ist]

Maybe it's not just Sony where recent models of the flagship lines of electronics manufacturers skimped. I prefer Pioneer Elite products and Pioneer Premier car audio products.

But, there's a premium price to be paid for the TOTL. Thanks for the lowdown on that Sony ES changer, Laz.

Pop the cover off an early model Sony ES CDP. That's how they used to be built:

Nando.

 

[Northwinds]

Trim upgrade??? They look absolutely identical, I will pull the top off shortly

CDP-203

CDP-203ES

They even share the same manual

 

[Lazarus Short]

Maybe it's not just Sony where recent models of the flagship lines of electronics manufacturers skimped. I prefer Pioneer Elite products and Pioneer Premier car audio products.

But, there's a premium price to be paid for the TOTL. Thanks for the lowdown on that Sony ES changer, Laz.

Pop the cover off an early model Sony ES CDP. That's how they used to be built:

Nando.

Now, that's an Elevated Standard, but I think it was devalued all too soon. At least, I think I now understand the Sony motto of "Make Believe."

 

[Lazarus Short]

Trim upgrade??? They look absolutely identical, I will pull the top off shortly

CDP-203

CDP-203ES

They even share the same manual

They're not quite identical - one says "ES." Ha! I think I'll cut off the "ES" logo from the defunct CDP and glue it to my Sony blue-ray player. It should make as much difference as buying an ES model, and be a lot cheaper...

 

[Northwinds]

Neither has copper lined chassis. I think my CD player is a year older perhaps?

Non ES version

ES version

 

[Northwinds]

 

[BlazeES]

Not surprising.
Not all ES badged components deserve the designation.

The lowered tiered (lower model numbers) of ES components are not much better than their non-ES brethren.
But don't confuse the "bridge" products with the truly beastly TOTL or near-TOTL offerings.
Not only different ball game, entirely different league ...

 

[Northwinds]

Eh... I will stick with my dbx DX5. It does stuff the ES series can't and is considered one of the best "vintage" CD players out there by any standard of SQ

I am not a huge fan of Sony stuff anyway other then a couple big power amps which seem to be problematic anyway. I have a lot of Sony stuff sitting around here just because it's the most likely brand you see at a tagsales. ES stuff seems to be popular but I am happy with the gear I have

Blaze, are you familiar with the better Sony turntables? I have a PS 4300 that the manual armlift does not operate in the garage and am working on getting the dust cover polished up. It works perfectly except the manual armlift. I tried looking inside but it looks like a bunch of stuff has to be disassembled to even get to it. Is it cam operated or a spring thing?

Looks like this

 

[Lazarus Short]

Not surprising.
Not all ES badged components deserve the designation.

The lowered tiered (lower model numbers) of ES components are not much better than their non-ES brethren.
But don't confuse the "bridge" products with the truly beastly TOTL or near-TOTL offerings.
Not only different ball game, entirely different league ...

So...what you're saying is that there is an elevated Standard, and an ELEVATED​ Standard.

 

[BlazeES]

So...what you're saying is that there is an elevated Standard, and an ELEVATED​ Standard.

That's one way of putting it.

Sony and Pioneer were notorious for badging lower tiered product with higher tiered product designations.
CDP's and tape decks saw the most of the funny business. The best way to define it is that it didn't take
much enhancement to the design/circuitry to earn the badge at the entry level. Some gold-plated terminals,
rudimentary calibration functions, slightly more capable memory functions on a CD deck. Sh!t like that.

Marketing folks always slip mickeys into the food-chain.

 

[BlazeES]

Blaze, are you familiar with the better Sony turntables? I have a PS 4300 that the manual armlift does not operate in the garage and am working on getting the dust cover polished up. It works perfectly except the manual armlift. I tried looking inside but it looks like a bunch of stuff has to be disassembled to even get to it. Is it cam operated or a spring thing?

Looks like this

No experience on the turntable side for Sony. I'd love to own one someday though.
I've had my Denon DP since the mid-eighties and it satisfied any need to look elsewhere.

Spring actuated seems unlikely though. I'd put my money on solenoid assisted cam.

How do you activate manual lift on that? Stop button?

Vinyl Engine has what looks to be a full compliment of downloadable documents.
Service manual says incomplete but that may be due to part of the schematic missing, or a base page.
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/sony/ps-4300.shtml

 

[Northwinds]

It has a manual lift and an electronic start/stop (which works fine). I see references to a cam setup now that I dig a bit deeper but no internal shot

 

[Master Tasuke]

PIONEER PD-8070 vs. REFERENCE PD-3000 vs ELITE PD-91;


- PD-8070 -

- PD-3000 -

- PD-91 -

 

[derek92994]

Maybe it's not just Sony where recent models of the flagship lines of electronics manufacturers skimped. I prefer Pioneer Elite products and Pioneer Premier car audio products.

Nando.

The inside of your TC-K950ES looks high end =).

 

[Lazarus Short]

The inside of your TC-K950ES looks high end =).

Yes, except for the circuit board material - important if you're fixing or modding the gear.

 

[BlazeES]

Yes, except for the circuit board material - important if you're fixing or modding the gear.

Say what ?

 

[derek92994]

Say what ?

LMFAO!! =))