[Deuce_Bigalow]

Grrrr223, your old Sony discman probably sounds at least as good as any of the newer ones you could buy. You should just stick with that.

 

[grrr223]

I wish it did Deuce, but it's been beat up, dropped, and I think what is actually responsible for it's current behavior is it's getting soaked in a rainstorm. Anyway, it needs to be replaced, and it's unfortunate if I can't find one that sounds as good as it did when it was new.

I am looking at the 470 and maybe the DAC could be cool too.

Is the gamma DAC good enough that it would make an improvement if I used my 400 disc Sony CD player as a transport only and then used the gamma with it when I wasn't using it for headphones?

 

[fiddler]

Redwoood, I got mine at the local Radio Shack, sadly... I know I could've gotten a much better deal elsewhere (online), but I'm off to camp tomorrow so I needed to get one as soon as possible..

 

[Deuce_Bigalow]

btw Grrr, a lot of people on here were complaining that ESP2 sucked, how well did yours work? Do you actually use ESP?

 

[Redwoood]

fiddler:
Yeah, I know what you mean. I was quite tempted myself, but then decided I wasn't in a hurry and didn't wanna pay 200$ + tax.
So, I ordered online and am still waiting...

You, on the other hand, got your player right away and that's worth quite a bit. And I haven't seen this player cheaper anywhere in Canada, so I think you got a pretty fair deal.

Bye

Redwoood

 

[grrr223]

Without ESP, the discman actually works very well (or used to before the water incident). I could walk to school in the morning with it in my pocket with the ESP off and it wouldn't skip which was great because the ESP drains the batteries.

I would use the ESP in the car because it was plugged in so battery life wasn't an issue, and it worked very well. You could shake the discman for a while, maybe 10 seconds and it wouldn't skip, it's pretty amazing actually. I never had any problems with it, well...until I messed up my discman. Now it kinda skips randomly even on CDs I just bought on Sunday, so I know it's not the CD, I just need a new discman.

One thing I did notice though is that if I CD were scratched, it would play better without the ESP on. I once heard/read somewhere that it had something to do with the CDP trying to compare what it had stored with what it was reading and the scratch was messing that up, but just turning the ESP off would allow it to handle some pretty nasty scratches.

 

[chewmanji]

what about the panasonic slct480, slct580, sclt780 players? i just saw them at futureshop but i dunno how good they sound. anyway have/tried these?

 

[Redwoood]

The 480 is kinda cheap, don't know about the sound though.
I suspect its not as good as the others.

The 580 and 780 are incredibly small and flat but also very delicate - I don't think they would tolerate a rough treatment.
The sound of the 580 is pretty good, so I suspect the 780 might be the same. The 580 has no line out, only the 780 has one.
And they have a digital volume control that is IMHO just horrible.


Bye


Redwoood

 

[Odeen]

What's horrible about a digital volume control? The more sound is changed in the digital domain, IMHO, the better - no need to have a pot in the output path. And we do know that most pots are TERRIBLE until you get into a $20 range or so..

Also, this allows for the remote to control the volume without introducing yet ANOTHER pot into the mix... It just sends the "turn it down, stupid!" messages down to the main unit. A digital volume control should be a boon for cheap/portable equipment, IMHO

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I own a Sony D-EJ721, and used to own a Panasonic SL-CT580 - and I will have to say that the digital volume control buttons on the Panasonic are CRAP compared to those of my Sony!

In other words, the Panasonic's volume buttons are much harder to use/press (even intentionally) than the ones on the Sony.

 

[Odeen]

Yes, but I think they don't detract from the sound quality as much as pots do..

Heck - what if a digital volume control allows for the output gain stage to turn off? Wouldn't that be instant line-out without having to build in a second jack, etc?

 

[thomas]

I don't think any portables use a true digital volume control, and if they did, i don't think it would be a good thing.

I think most CDPs use digitally controlled step attenuators, which connect different combinations of resistors into the signal path to decrease the volume.

In theory, this is a great idea, because it should be able to provide much better performance than a pot (especially at that price range). Also, when used with a remote control, the volume can be adjusted via a digital interface, rather than having to add a second cheep pot into the signal path. But in actual practice, they must use very inferior parts and designs because most newer cdps that use them are somewhat noisy and have poor dynamics.

A true digital volume control is rarely used, except in computer soundcards. These actually use mathematical algorithms to reduce the amplitue of the samples, before they pass to the DAC. So at full volume, you will have a perfect signal with full resolution (and no analog pot in the signal path), but as you decrease the volume, the resolution will decrease greatly. So if you listen at low volumes, the resolution may be 8 bits or even less... So there will be an audiable degeation in the sound with true digital volume controls.

I think the newest Sony MDs allow you to select between line-level output and amplified headphone output digitally. Supposedly, there is quite a large difference in sound between the two, even though they use the same jack....

 

[Redwoood]

Odeen:

When I said I didn't like the digital volume control I didn't mean the sound. I guess digital is probably better than the cheap pots they usually build into PCDPs.

It's the buttons that are horrible. You find yourself pressing them like mad to just go 2 levels higher. And then you get used to this and you overshoot. They give you no feedback whatsoever about whether they are pressed or not.
Just horrible to *operate*


Bye

Redwoood

 

[Odeen]

Thomas:

Thanks for the information on the former (Go fig, same technology is used in $7500 pre-amps as in tiny MD players!). The latter does seem to prove my point - it's possible to make a line out out of a headphone out fairly easily, and cheaply.