[Freddy]

I have already posted this inquiry in the "portable source gear" forum, but I am hoping to draw upon the expertise of the DIY community who hang out here. Mods: if you feel that this doesn't belong here, I apologize.

Basically, here is a summary of my situation:

I was listening to the headphone output of my Sony D25S portable CD player with a new pair of MEElectronic M9 IEMS (this is the first time I had used this combination). Sometimes when listening with the M9s with other devices, I notice "popping" noises in quick succession, which I had taken to be caused by some static discharge to the cable due to poor insulation. During this particular listening session, the "popping" clicks were occurring quite frequently, and I noticed it seemed to be caused by rubbing up against my clothing. Then, all of a sudden there was a prominent "pop" and the music coming out of the CD player became very distorted and had lots of skipping. I subsequently turned off the unit, unplugged it from a power source, tried the line out, tried other headphones -- the problem remains. I recorded a sample on my computer of how my D25S now sounds and have attached the file (.wma format).

So, can anyone interpret the situation and give me some sort of explanation? And, is there anything I can do to salvage my D25S?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tomb]

Just my own guess, but I doubt seriously that it had anything to do with static. Most likely, the popping and subsequent inability to track was a transistor or IC giving up the ghost. Stuff happens with older equipment.

 

[grenert]

Another, equally depressing possibility is your laser assembly is going out. In my experience, early vintage Sony PCDPs are particularly susceptible to this. Some (D-303 comes to mind) are worse than others. There is a thread on "fixing" the laser on these, but that is often just a temporary remedy, since it is an underlying hardware failure.

However, I can't tell from your wav file if that is the problem; just throwing it out there as a common problem with these players. I agree that static is not likely the problem.

 

[Freddy]

Yes, I agree there is always a reliability risk with vintage audio equipment. But I gotta believe there was some external stimulus that caused the popping noise, and that it may be traced back to the earphones. My evidence for this is that: 1) it seemed to happen only when I shifted my position in my chair, and 2) I have heard popping with other sources with the same earphones (though not to the extent with the d25s last night). I will do some more listening with an "expendable" source and see if I can repeat the noise...but I still swear it had something to do with the 'phones.

Now, I'm mostly concerned with getting this fixed. Thanks for the suggestions, folks. If anyone has experience with pcdp repair, I'd like to be in contact with him/her -- I'm not particularly interested in attempting a repair myself.

 

[tstarn06]

Doubt it had anything to do with static and headphones. My old Sony D25 gave out 5 years ago. Seems like yours lasted quite awhile.