[Sarchi]

[size=small]Sony Playstation 1.[/size]

Find one for 10 bucks or less..... sounds amazing as a cd player. My jaw is on the floor.

 

[Mindless]

Hate to say but that's old news by now.

Can't say I'm entierly convinced myself though. I haven't hooked up my PS1 (haven't bothered to fix the power button) to my amplifier and tried, but I fail to see how it can beat any $2-7000 CDP I've heard (as some claim it does).

 

[chesebert]

1. old news
2. bad advise
3. save and buy a real CDP

 

[Killercrush]

I have one and the frequency response is pretty bad, rolled off at each extremes, soft sounding, too warm, etc. It can beat some cheap DVD players but that's about it.

 

[Herandu]

It's old news, but not bad advise. The PS1 was manufactured on a large scale, making it a relatively inexpensive mass market product. The R&D cost that has gone into the PS1 surpasses even the world's most expensive CD player by several 1000's or more times. Put in another way: your 50K Burmeister would see less than 1000 pieces sold. That's U$50M. Out of that amount comes R&D cost. The PS1 sold in their millions. R&D cost would have made the R&D cost of the U$50K Burmeister look like small change to Sony.
But there is more! The PS1 includes a processor and memory bank that surpasses anything that has ever been fitted to any "standard" CD player. That processing power was bit accurate for video images, which are several times more demanding compared to a 16 bit audio signal. Did I mention the PS1 video bandwidth accuracy compared to a CD player audio bandwidth?
If that wasn't enough, the PS1 optical pick up was a masterpiece of engineering. Trying to buy one on the open market was near to impossible. Sony never sold them to anyone. You had to send your PS1 back for exchange if you needed a new laser pick up.
You talk about clock accuracy? It would have many current day clock mods for breakfast. Ever noticed how stable the video image was even during complex games manoeuvres? And just imagine that the video was at a higher bit rate than the audio!
So which high-end U$250K CD manufacturer has a better R&D facility than Sony? Didn't Sony and Philips invent the CD format? And someone can better that? I think not. Not even in a U$500K CD player.

 

[Sarchi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mindless /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hate to say but that's old news by now. Can't say I'm entierly convinced myself though. I haven't hooked up my PS1 (haven't bothered to fix the power button) to my amplifier and tried, but I fail to see how it can beat any $2-7000 CDP I've heard (as some claim it does).

Give it a try, you might be surprised.

Always good to keep an open mind..

 

[Icarium]

Yes well. I've used my PS2 as both a transport and a full on source. It sounded very bad. More money went into the development of the so-called Emotion Engine and the PS2 in general than the PS-1. But for some reason it is.. to put it mildly, not good.

Riddle me that.

 

[Sarchi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herandu /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's old news, but not bad advise. The PS1 was manufactured on a large scale, making it a relatively inexpensive mass market product. The R&D cost that has gone into the PS1 surpasses even the world's most expensive CD player by several 1000's or more times. Put in another way: your 50K Burmeister would see less than 1000 pieces sold. That's U$50M. Out of that amount comes R&D cost. The PS1 sold in their millions. R&D cost would have made the R&D cost of the U$50K Burmeister look like small change to Sony. But there is more! The PS1 includes a processor and memory bank that surpasses anything that has ever been fitted to any "standard" CD player. That processing power was bit accurate for video images, which are several times more demanding compared to a 16 bit audio signal. Did I mention the PS1 video bandwidth accuracy compared to a CD player audio bandwidth? If that wasn't enough, the PS1 optical pick up was a masterpiece of engineering. Trying to buy one on the open market was near to impossible. Sony never sold them to anyone. You had to send your PS1 back for exchange if you needed a new laser pick up. You talk about clock accuracy? It would have many current day clock mods for breakfast. Ever noticed how stable the video image was even during complex games manoeuvres? And just imagine that the video was at a higher bit rate than the audio! So which high-end U$250K CD manufacturer has a better R&D facility than Sony? Didn't Sony and Philips invent the CD format? And someone can better that? I think not. Not even in a U$500K CD player.

Right, makes sense. It's casework really is pretty chintzy for a Sony product, but I am hearing high resolution and musicality from the thing. (in my main system...haven't used it with headphones yet)

Bad advice, What? I never said to spend more than 10 bux for one, if you don't already have one collecting dust in the attic.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes well. I've used my PS2 as both a transport and a full on source. It sounded very bad. More money went into the development of the so-called Emotion Engine and the PS2 in general than the PS-1.

Well then,whose fault is it if you tried the PS2 when the PS1 was the one to try? Follow up generations are not always as good. the PS2 was more featured packed, not sonically gifted. The Philips CDM-2 mechanism is still being used today in some high-end CD players, because it was over engineered just to make sure it would last. Same with the PS1 laser unit and electronics. Last thing Sony wanted was a world wide failure rate that would spell the death knell of all their investment. Just look how much Microsoft is valuing the problems of the XBox at. Was it not around U$10 Billion?

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarchi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Right, makes sense. It's casework really is pretty chintzy for a Sony product, but I am hearing high resolution and musicality from the thing. (in my main system...haven't used it with headphones yet) Bad advice, What? I never said to spend more than 10 bux for one, if you don't already have one collecting dust in the attic.

Sorry, but 250 or 500 dollars is NOWHERE NEAR high end.

Really think a game console sounds better then a specilized high end cdplayer, come on....

 

[krmathis]

I fail to se how a $200 game console can outperform a high-end CD player.
I know price is not everything, but its a good indication on the part costs...

 

[rb67]

Why does everything have to cost a lot to sound good?

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif I fail to se how a $200 game console can outperform a high-end CD player. I know price is not everything, but its a good indication on the part costs...

What parts cost? The expensive display, or the expensively machined casing? The actual electronic components in a CD player cost next to nothing when bought in quantity. Oh, and Sony hardly buys components: they make the things themselves

. Somebody who makes 1000 pcs of a high end CD player will get a break price on 1000 pieces of the components. That could be, say, U$1.00 each. Buy 1 million pieces of that component,and the price could be 15 cents each. The most expensive DAC chip in consumer players is less than U$25 the last time I looked. And that's for a 1 off. Buy that in bulk, and watch the price tumble.
The mark up of a consumer product from factory gate to retail shelf is on average 5 to 1. So something that cost U$1.00 to make, will cost U$4.99 in the shops at the minimum! Sony controls their sales from factory to Sony retail centre. So each bit of profit stays with the same company.

To give you an idea on my favourite DAC and its price: I asked Stanly how come the price is so low. The reason is simple: he controls the price from factory to the customer. So there are no sales agent in between to take any cut. If you could buy that DAC from a retailer, the price would jump by anything between 60 to 120%! This formula applies to any product on the market where the manufacturer sells the product into retail direct.

 

[spritzer]

A lightly modded PS1 can be surprising as while it flawed and rolled off is has PRaT and musicality in spades. Buy a couple of Wima caps and some resistors and bypass the musing circuit and the opamps and mount some better RCA's and you have a pretty good player for 15$. Those that say it beat a 7k$ cdp are obviously deaf or favor a warm and mushy analog sound but it isn't bad. It has great synergy with the Stax lambdas as they have a nasty midrange coloration and a bit of a bass boom.

The PS1 is the last digital refuge for die hard vinyl fanatics as the sound signature is very similar.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herandu /img/forum/go_quote.gif What parts cost?

Transport, DAC, capacitors, wiring, connectors, and lots more...
I am sure these parts can be had for just a handful bucks. But high quality part, for a high-end player, cost a whole lot more.

I don't question that the PS1 sound good. But saying that it can replace a high-end CD player is wrong, imo.