Well... always wanted a vintage Discman. Seems like my little vintage PCDP craze is still going.
Seeing the D-555 going for 500 bucks on the Bay, well... I ain't got the Orion Blue Book but that's just one huge ripoff. A Marantz CD500x costs less and probably sounds better.
So basically I went to a local old electronics shop, hoping to find a new-old receiver to replace my Lloyd's. Yeah the tuner part is half-dead (no FM-Stereo) so maybe all I needed was a new-old tuner.
Anyway.
With no eligible units, I walked out of the shop, only to see a small black square in a Clearance basket right by the door. What do you know, a Discman. Old one, also.
So basically, guys, don't trip out on the D-555. The humble little D-33 also has the 8 times oversampling and Dual D/A converter system found in the D-555.
Pics. Guest starring: Marantz PCD520, Panasonic SL-S370 and SL-CT710.
So basically the first thing I did when I came home was to crack it open. Yeah, curiosity often gets me in knee-deep water but what the hey. Removed screws and the metal back-plate. I am presented with many (I'd say some 250) test points (or really big soldering points). There was a screw holding down this PCB, but I cannot un-mount the PCB for some reason. So I peeked in there with a flashlight and saw a bunch of thru-hole electrolytic caps. Didn't see the dual DAC system, or any chips, for that matter.
Oh yeah. Back-plate is metal but the rest is black polycarbonate.
The laser assy is sprung with three (six?) springs. A bit stiff, but works fine.
CD player takes 4 AA batteries. When fully loaded (batts + CD), the CD player weighs:
A bit more than 535 grams. No doubt that with Energizer Lithiums it will weigh less.
So, yeah, that. Enough with the info, now, impression.
Only the Monster Turbine Pro-Gold, directly driven, is used in the following impression. Because I am lazy.
Bass. The D-33 is very capable of pounding out bass, even with the Bass Boost at 'Normal' (there is no Off). The Discman D-33 delivers the most powerful bass in any arguably portable device I have heard to date. That includes the HM-801 and the PCM-D50. This bass, however, focuses mostly on impact. The PCD520, in comparison, has a more even bass signature, being less impactful but with more depth and texture. Cellos sound more realistic on the PCD520.
So the D-33 is rather midbass-humped. In contrast the post-2000 SL-CT710 needs to have its S-XBS effect turned on to achieve the same level of impact. The good thing is that this bass doesn't affect the rest of the spectrum, and it is quite responsive depending on the type of music (and passage) it is being fed. The bass comes alive when it is needed and shuts up when it is not. This is the kind of bass I wanted for a long time.
Midrange, well, sounds a bit distant. The midrange is a bit odd, I don't know how to describe it exactly, but vocals always keep a little distance while on the other players, vocals can get much more intimate. I'm not saying that the midrange is bad and hollow, no, just a bit different from what I was used to. It's like switching from highly diluted green tea to pure water: you don't lose much, but you still lose that little something. Nelly Furtado sounds a bit less energetic on this player.
Treble. The treble is very well present here, and I could say that it is clearer than my other players (except the setup in my sig). Listen to some trance: when the sparkly treble part comes in, I feel like looking at a wall full of colorful glitter (yes, I know that sounds queer). The treble has a good sense of distance, too: instead of a wall, maybe I should'v said a cave. Best of all, the treble has non of the old 'brick wall analog filter' artifacts, probably because of the oversampling. I've been reading through some threads on sampling.
Sound stage would be 'medium-to-large'. A bit like a big solid box around my head: not completely open and infinite (I am using IEMs), but big enough to be quite enjoyable. Dimensionality, separation and location is also quite good. So What (Kind of Blue) feels quite envelopping.
Overall the whole sound signature seems to be fore suited for the SE530, lol. It should even out the midrange and bring out the treble a bit. I shall try listening with SE530 later.
Well right now that's it folks. The spring-sprung suspention is actually better than that of the PCD520. It does skip when you walk with it, but not a lot. Most skipping happens on stairs.
Chime in. Hope you enjoyed reading! 
