Online Resource: The Eastsound CD-E5 European Edition

thanks for doing this, philodox! the old thread was definitely unwieldy. one suggestion i have, though, is to host the pictures on something like imageshack.us instead of linking to cattylink. even though they aren't inline, knowing headfi and its love for the eastsound they are going to get a lot of clicks.

Any CD player can have transport laser problems - the weak part of a CD player.

If all goes well the laser lasts about 7 years or more before burning out.

Th E5 CD player uses the Philips VAM 1202 transport/laser, with an added Eastsound photo preamp circuit to improve performance of the 1202.

This is a very high-performing unit that is very reliable and inexpensive to replace.

I will provide free labor in replacing the laser unit, or the whole transport, at any future time for all E5 owners. It is a quick and easy task, and anyone wishing to do it themselves can get a link for instructions posted here by Mike Fl, or from myself. A replacement laser unit is less than $25 and the transport itself (with no laser in it) costs about the same.

This fix-it-yourself-cheaply feature is one of the strong points of the E5, since laser failure is by far the most common cause of CDP problems.

DHL just brought mine in today, looks very very nice and solid build. I will post internal shots soon. First listenning impression is that it is a little coarse and harsh in the upper mids/treble but at the end of my 3 hour listenning session it was starting to tame a bit. Clarity and resolution is top notch. I am hearing whispers and speech I couldn't make out before on Roger Waters-Amused to death. I'll give it another few days of burn-in before i judge too critically. Quick comments are soundstage is very wide and imaging at the extremes is very good. Silver Raincoat powercord added a bit of bass depth and control, the stock interconnects are of reasonable quality and the goldraincoat's are very nice eye candy. Have not sat down for IC rolling yet. My only complaints are the transport tray moves really slowly like a ww1 tank and the remote is kinda cruddy. It has to be aimed directly at the player to read and the buttons on the player and remote feel very cheap.

My fix for the remote-It rattles a bit since it is 2 pieces of aluminum that slide together. The tolerances from factory aren't that great, but I simply added a little blue tac to the battery tray and the sliders (you'll know where once you open it) and the remote now feels like a solid chunk of aluminum and the battery wont shift inside when you use it.

EDIT- DO NOT DO THIS, I've found the tile is prone to falling off and lying on the transport. While it caused no visible damage, I'd be safe and just dampen on the outside!!



I had to open the cover to let any moisture evaporate. Especially in the wintertime when you bring in a cold piece of electronics from outside, it is good to let it sit for a few hours in room temperature to avoid moisture condensation on the components inside. Small picture but the build quality is excellent and very neat. I noticed some ugly soldering on some of the other members boards but as far as I can see it is all good on this one and will not require touching up. Good quality caps are used where it counts, I will probably replace the rest with blackgates in the future.

Here is a topless frontal shot...



It matches nicely with my gilmore lite and dt880's.

Nice pics.

Good tips, though I had no problems with my remote - built like a tank, as is the E5 CDP.

Give it a few days to really become familar with the sound - highly signal-accurate and resolving, faithful to the signal and changes readily with different recordings, cables, headphones, amps, tubes, etc.

Look forward to your future comments.

another link

Thanks for the new thread Philodox. It was time for a change.

If you wish you can add the following link for the transport change details site I made up:
http://pages.videotron.com/mikedf/

On another note I received my Dimarzio interconnects a few days ago but they made a mistake and sent me the wrong length and some high definition's instead of the M-Path I had bought. They said to keep these and that they would be sending the right ones free of charge. How's that for service ?!

You paid to ship rock from China? I hope it was very special rock.

Of course that was the famous Chinese Wall Granite, which by its tradition is unsurpassed in keeping the good (in this case: sound) in and the bad (in this case: vibrations) out. Much better than the snake-oily Berlin Wall Concrete often purchased for high prices by inexperienced junior audiophiles, 'cause that will only last for a comparatively short time and will then crumble and fail - beware!

Oh, uhm - sorry, couldn't resist.

Manfred / lini

yes, it keeps a special place in my heart. cattylink sent it to me without my prior knowledge. I opened the box containing the IC and power cord and bundled in it was the granite. I wish snowy had alerted me he was going to include these, I would have politely turned him down as I could get it at the hardware store for 10 bux a slab, much cheaper than the shipping cost from china. fyi it weighs about 10lbs..

Is it my imagination or has the toroidal transformer been moved slightly over to the left (nearer the power supply)???

Yes it does look like the toroid is closer to the power supply.

I also just received my cd-e5 this afternoon. And I have to say it has the most impressive packing job I've ever seen! I wouldn't doubt that if this packing job was done in north america would have cost $30-40!!!! And all this just for something valued only at $750!!! I am really interested to see how the mega buck $$$ cd players are being boxed and shipped?!

I also received the 3 well packaged granite pieces in a separate box with the cables , it is absolutely insane to be shipping those things international express!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what do I do with the granite pieces?? place them on top of the cd player for damping? What about the 2 smaller pieces?

Cattylink also included the Xindak silver audio fuse. I opened up the top cover of the cd player looking for a fuse to replace, but I can't find any fuse in there?? Can someone help me out on how to replace the fuse?

Thanks,
JAck

What gives. I didn't get any granite.