[kramer5150]

I was snooping around the electronic scrap bins today at work and found a DVD player + remote.

Ive been playing music CDs with it non stop for a few hours and it seems to be working fine

. It has a bunch of yuky JRC4558 OP amps on the analog side and the DAC is a PCM1606E, but fortunately also has a coax digital out. Theres also a subwoofer output. I have an extra Boston sub sitting around that I might play around with

If any one cares... here are some pics.

Coby... YUK!!

Peek inside.

cheap cheap cheap...

 

[MontyPythizzle]

At least it has a cool looking display?!?!

 

[spacemanspliff]

At least it works lol. Good find.

 

[ziplock]

Good stuff. I have no shame of "diving in" when I see something of potential value.

I am a DIY electronics guy, so if it's broken when I find it, all the better!

Last month I found a Yamaha C-80 Preamp in dumpster territory. A little solder and some contact cleaner turned this thing into a great sounding piece of audio equipment.

Anyway, enjoy your new toy!

~Zip

 

[mrarroyo]

A working free player! Man consider yourself very lucky.

 

[DrBenway]

To me, the Coby brand name has always been a synonym for garbage (no offence intended; I didn't mean that to sound hostile).

HOWEVER...

It's a transport with a coax out? Pair it with a good DAC, stay away from the crappy analog components, and you might have something there...


I have had a few of their products. They make a little, cool looking pocket radio, which I bought at Cheap Jacks here in Manhattan, 'cause it cost like $10. It was terrible.

But I also have had a few of their PCDPs, and one of them (don't remember the model #, but it had a cool-looking, transparent top, so that you could see the spinning CD underneath) sounded surprisingly not bad.

I've always been fascinated by brands like this. They are bottom feeders, no doubt, but they also represent the ultimate in trickle down tech. Any portable CD, when CD was young, would have cost you, easy, $500. Coby players can be had for $15-$20. Capitalism is way wierd.

 

[jwilldermood]

Wow, what a POS! Dumpster electrnics rule! How does it sound with the Entech? I bet not bad. I think you can get Coby electronics at Dollar General.

 

[Spareribs]

Fascinating thread. As many of you know, there are many stories of great dumpster dive finds. I've even found delicious pizza in the dumpster that was fresh and tasty. A good reheat in the home oven was all that was needed.

Probably the most "famous" dumpster dive stories are the ones where people find great vintage gear. It's crazy when people throw out an old Marantz in excellent shape but yes people really do do this.

Back on the topic, i think it's great when a decent cheap DVD player is found laying around. Makes a great office or secondary source for some CD fun especially when paired with a DAC to fine tune the sound a bit more. Very nice indeed.

I've been looking at some of the cheap Coby players and the thing that I do like about them is that there are small sized DVD players that are cheap and this makes a great desk top CD player for a second rig or a little kick around rig for the work place. Hook it up to a decent DAC and a nice modest amp and you have a very nice sounding system that actually can potentially sound respectable. Bargain-fi with a big impact.

 

[rxc]

lol, move this to general and turn it into a dumpster diving thread.

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah... its actually not all that bad. I guess I can't complain about the price. Not sure why it was tossed out, maybe time will tell? I played some DVDs through it and it worked fine and have played CDs non-stop today, no problems found. Time will tell

My complaints:
Transport is a bit noisy. I'm going to mess around with some blue-tack, placed on the transport chassis to try and damp resonance.

That dolby DTS decoder chip (the big square one on the main PCB) gets very hot and dissipates heat through the PCB and into the two buffer/RAM chips. This can't be a good thing over the long haul. I have some tall heatsinks that I am going to use to dissipate heat up and away from the PCB.

Overall it sounds surprisingly good paired with the entech DAC through the coax-digital output. As mentioned above, it would make for a decent, low cost bedroom rig. My D335 recently died and so far this paired with my DAC will make a nice transportable rig that I can easily take to mini-meets.

 

[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rxc /img/forum/go_quote.gif lol, move this to general and turn it into a dumpster diving thread.

Thats a great idea... Mods please feel free to move it, and I will re-title it accordingly

 

[silverrain]

Jeez -- you guys should watch my trash -- I generally throw away older PC's and DVD players -- for what little I could sell them for, the shipping is way crazy-high, so why bother?
That's why dumpster-diving pays off, if you look in the right ones I suppose.
I did that when I was younger (and way poorer) -- got some neat stuff.

 

[rxc]

Dumpster diving isn't what it used to be ever since they switched to those compactor deals. DO NOT try those.

 

[Ori]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif have played CDs non-stop today, no problems found. Time will tell My complaints: Transport is a bit noisy.

That is your clue... The playback through digital out is absolutely fine. Mine actually beat a few much more expensive units!
The transport worked well for 3 years and then developed that "signature noise" and soon thereafter just died on me. I'd still say it was a heck of a deal for a zone-free (!) dvd player which plays music this good. All for a mere $19...
I pressed my luck and bought a $19 Symphonic to replace it. This time no cigar...

 

[Krohn]

These are always good finds. I'm an admitted thrift store hunter...but I've got some decent stuff for next to no money.

My main CD player at home is a CEC, with optical and coax outputs. It has a headphone out as well (should I ever want to bring it to work, nice and handy). It set me back a whole $4. Also found a decent Teac CD player for the same price.

Hope I can be lucky enough to find a vintage Sansui receiver or something similar!