What was the best Sony Discman made - Page 2

I would not recommend PBD V30. There was a class action lawsuit against Sony / PBD V30. Very high rate of failure due to a faulty component. The best options for you are : 1. D 303 with headphone out, analogue line out and digital/optical line out. 2. D 465 / 475 with headphone out and line out + digital/optical line out from the same jack. Soundwise D 303 is better than D 465 / 475 versions if you plan to use these discmans as portable cd platforms as well and not just using them as a recording source. If on the scale of 1 to 10 D 303 is a 10, then I would rank D 465 / 475 a 7 or 8. The current miserable crop of portable cd players is below level 3. If you decide to get one of these 2 Sonys, you will have to recondition them, they are some 15 or 20 years old. Optical sled assembly should be cleaned of dirt/dust and of old drying lubricant and re-lubricated and should have the optical head/lens cleaned [ by a profesional ]. The motor might need a drop of the machine oil. Get the essential spare parts if you plan to have and use these discmans for years to come. 1. spindle motors [ most common problem ] - for D 303 the motor is Mabuchi RF-410. If you google it you will find a supplier, I saw it being sold for around 20 USD. Get 2 to be safe, the production will stop at some point. 2. SMD or Surface mount capacitors, there are a few of them in each of the discmans. In D 303 those that will need replacing - SMD capacitor Panasonic CXA1272 100 uf / 6.3 V in servo circuit plus SMD Panasonic capacitors 100 uf / 6.3 V in secondary power supply circuit.  ( this info. thanks to ' Kaosun ' / head-fi ). The best thing is to get all SMD capacitors as spares. 3. Laser unit assembly . 4. Sled motor 5. Motor unit assembly  or 6. the option of getting the whole combo Laser unit assembly+ Motor unit assembly together. Good option is to buy another discman of the same type for the spares. Going through all this will give you security of having a functioning discman for many years and the sound that at least from the line out is better than the sound from i-pod. If you decide to bid for a D 303 on ebay drop a post about it on this forum, i will give you advice/help. 

I have heard quite a few and the D-555 tops the list in terms of sound quality and features. Next in line for me...very close in line actually...would be the D-25s. I love the sound quality the D-25 puts out.

I had a D-15 or D-25 when they came out. Someone broke it on me, and the replacement was terrible in comparision. Never found another PCDP that sounded as good. Where does the NE20 come in the SQ charts of old PCDP's?

My D-11 is coming in the mail today. Picked it up on ebay for about $40, including a case, charger, and car mounting plate (which I'll never use because my car has a really good CD player already). I'll post my impressions when it arrives.