[Marlene]

I´d like to do a little shameless self promotion (if I´m allowed to do that): I´ve written two reviews of vintage portable CD players on my blog http://marlene-d.blogspot.com/
 
I became infected after doing a thorough reading here on this site and since last October I´ve roughly collected eight portable CD players, two only for spare parts. All of them are in good shape and function nicely and most of them do sound very good (albeit with different sonic colour). Please note that the comparisons are level matched and that I didn´t review their headphone outputs, I only used their line-outs via a level-matched recording session with an E-MU 0202 USB. I also offer fully legal excerpts from the files I recorded (except for the D-20 and the D-EJ 915; though I can edit my review to include those samples too).
 
I´ve reviewed so far:
Sony D-20/22
Sony D-220
Sony D-465
Sony D-EJ 915
Technics SL-XP 300
Technics SL-VP 50
 
A not so honourable mention goes to the Sony D-515. If I´m lucky I can soon get my hands on a much desired Technics SL-XP 700 though I doubt I´ll be able to. The Technics SL-VP 50 (Panasonic SL-VP 50) is interesting because I was able to get a new and unused player. I´m posting this here because I´d like to get some further insights and possibly some recommendations to improve those reviews.

 

[clark9r]

Too bad you couldn't review a Sony D-5 their first "portable" CD player Vintage 1984 or something , I used to have one, but sadly it died. It was great as long as it was plugged in to the AC dock. it could drive my 300 ohm Sennheiser phones as loud as you could stand. I never bought the battery pack for it I think it was about ten pounds all NI-CAD. Thinks for keeping the older tech alive nice to see the comparison to the newer stuff. Most people under 40 don't realize what a great invention the CD player is it was a game changer. Clark

 

[warubozu]

Vintage PCDP review by Duncan:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/31233/personal-cd-players-through-the-ages-a-review-updated-10-05-2003

 

[Marlene]

Quote:

Too bad you couldn't review a Sony D-5 their first "portable" CD player Vintage 1984 or something , I used to have one, but sadly it died. It was great as long as it was plugged in to the AC dock. it could drive my 300 ohm Sennheiser phones as loud as you could stand. I never bought the battery pack for it I think it was about ten pounds all NI-CAD. Thinks for keeping the older tech alive nice to see the comparison to the newer stuff. Most people under 40 don't realize what a great invention the CD player is it was a game changer. Clark

Thank you for your encouraging words. And you´re right, most people around our age (I´m 36) don´t care about older portables. But as I wrote in my first PCDP review I started this hobby with a Technics SL-XP 300 and I always was interested in small portable units. And I´m afraid I never was interested much in the D-5. It´s too bulky for me and certainly too expensive on eBay. The D-20 is the closest I am to a really old CD player. I have a CDP-470 and a Kenwood DP-5090 - I plan to compare them both to a Pioneer DV-610 and a Sony MZ-R 30 to see how good an old portable MD recorder holds up against older full size decks and a more modern multi disc player.
 
Oh, and I rarely listen to the built-in headphone outputs of these players, most of the time they just sound so much better with my FIIO E6 attached to their line-outs.
 

 

[Marlene]

Quote:

Vintage PCDP review by Duncan:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/31233/personal-cd-players-through-the-ages-a-review-updated-10-05-2003

 That thread is one of the reasons why I started collecting. I do not agree on all of Duncan´s reviews (especially the D-465 and the D-515 were disappointing) but it´s a fascinating read nonetheless.

 

[warubozu]

Way back when Duncan was compiling that review, I was in deep with buying vintage PCDPs. Some of them were great sounding and worthy of their notoriety, others are way overrated and hyped up for what they were selling for. I found the D-465 to sound ok for it's relatively cheap price, nothing special. I have three D-515's and I like it's sound signature, certainly it's sound signature isn't worth the high prices some are charging. After having amassed a large collection of vintage PCDPs  consisting of Denons, Philips, Sonys, Aiwas, and Technics, I have since stopped buying them and moved on. I no longer have spare room in my home to store all of them, but it's fun to look back and every once in a while listen to them.

 

[Marlene]

Quote:

Way back when Duncan was compiling that review, I was in deep with buying vintage PCDPs. Some of them were great sounding and worthy of their notoriety, others are way overrated and hyped up for what they were selling for. I found the D-465 to sound ok for it's relatively cheap price, nothing special. I have three D-515's and I like it's sound signature, certainly it's sound signature isn't worth the high prices some are charging. After having amassed a large collection of vintage PCDPs  consisting of Denons, Philips, Sonys, Aiwas, and Technics, I have since stopped buying them and moved on. I no longer have spare room in my home to store all of them, but it's fun to look back and every once in a while listen to them.

Since you have so many portables I´d be interested in your opinion about several of them: For example, how does the Sony D-90 or the Sony D-99 sound? Or the Technics SL-XP 700? These are the players I still would like to have... and what about the Sony D-321? It´s one of the most beautiful players I have ever seen but it pops up on eBay only occasionally, so I assume that it´s rare.
 
 

 

[warubozu]

The D-90 (D-9 is the US model no.) to my ears sounded ok nothing special. Compared to the D-311 or D-25, I found the D-90 to be lacking in depth and headroom. The D-99 sounded slightly better in giving a little more detail and realism with it's 1 bit dac. The D-90 to my ears lacked bass punch and the D-99 is slightly better with mega bass turned on. I can't comment on the SL-XP 700 since I don't own one. The D-321 is a good sounding vintage PCDP, has a warm sound signature similar to the D-777 and good level of detail at a fraction of the price. The D-321 is not rare (a term that is often used too loosely in describing certain vintage PCDPs), as with a lot of these vintage PCDP one will show up if you wait long enough. The D-321 is a good looking PCDP with it brushed metal finish is nearly as thin as the D-311.

 

[bangraman]

The Denons were most sonically agreeable to me with the D-555 being my most visually desirable, but all of them were in the end just hopelessly overhyped in terms of what you can get today. In fact, none of them stack up IMO unless you need to power some huge set of cans unamped and you don't actually want anything genuinely portable.
 
 
Mind you, it depends on your level of self-convincing. e.g. If you convince yourself that there are sonic differences between USB cables on the basis of some completely uncontrolled RMAA tests, then who knows what you might end up liking, eh?
 
 

 

[Marlene]

Quote:

The D-90 (D-9 is the US model no.) to my ears sounded ok nothing special. Compared to the D-311 or D-25, I found the D-90 to be lacking in depth and headroom. The D-99 sounded slightly better in giving a little more detail and realism with it's 1 bit dac. The D-90 to my ears lacked bass punch and the D-99 is slightly better with mega bass turned on. I can't comment on the SL-XP 700 since I don't own one. The D-321 is a good sounding vintage PCDP, has a warm sound signature similar to the D-777 and good level of detail at a fraction of the price. The D-321 is not rare (a term that is often used too loosely in describing certain vintage PCDPs), as with a lot of these vintage PCDP one will show up if you wait long enough. The D-321 is a good looking PCDP with it brushed metal finish is nearly as thin as the D-311.

Thank you very much for your insights! I have decided: I will have a look for a used D-321, it´s beautiful, has a digital output and I have many spare parts for it.
 
 

The Denons were most sonically agreeable to me with the D-555 being my most visually desirable, but all of them were in the end just hopelessly overhyped in terms of what you can get today. In fact, none of them stack up IMO unless you need to power some huge set of cans unamped and you don't actually want anything genuinely portable.
 
 
Mind you, it depends on your level of self-convincing. e.g. If you convince yourself that there are sonic differences between USB cables on the basis of some completely uncontrolled RMAA tests, then who knows what you might end up liking, eh?
 
 

That´s my major problem: I don´t want to spend that much money for these players so a Denon or a D-555 or a D-350 are out of the question. 
 
And I don´t use these players unamped, I always use them with my FIIO E6 and ignore their headphone outputs. Except for the listening tests where their line-outs were recorded with the E-MU instead of being used with the amp. And I don´t convinced myself that there sonic differences between USB cables, I already knew that they were existing but I was curious to see if their was any measurable correlation 

 That there was a measurable differences in my tests surprised me a lot - and I actually did mention that my pictures are nothing more then nice graphs, what I did was statistically completely irrelevant and I said so several times. I hope that someone else will do the same, maybe the effects can be repeated.