Vintage pcdps rock (a little take on the Sony D211)
Apr 23, 2004 at 8:37 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

saint.panda

Headphoneus Supremus
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After reading Duncan's take on pdcp I decided to get a Sony D211 especially since I was lucky to get them relatively cheap on ebay. I don't have a cam at the moment so I can't take any pictures...

The remote is pretty useless because you can only connect the Sony headphones that are meant to be connected to the remote so you can't connect other headphones to the remote. Of course, you use the line-out and the remote. Build quality is pretty average in my opinion. The features are good (bass boost and DDS) although I prefer not activating any of these features as IMO they degrade the sound quality by quite a lot. Especially the bass boost muddles the midrange (I thought that pop with bass boost is pretty unlistenable on the D211). I haven't quite figured what the DDS is for but in some songs it adds some echo.
Other than that you can charge the batteries (standard AA) with the power supply. The LCD display is very pretty with a orange background light. And it has a resume function.

Ok, the sound: very good. Not nearly as good as my CDP (Philips CD 850) but simply blows my old Slimx 350 and Sony D131 and competes farily well with a Yamaha CDX player (consumer cd player for around 200$ 8 years ago). Soundstage is pretty good (the sound actually extends to the whole area around your head). Midrange is pretty sweet. The bass, though strong and deep, however, lacks some texture in some of the songs I have tried them with. The highs on the other hand pretty good.
To sum it up: a great player with a great sound though I haven't tested it under portable situations yet. Power output is good: I tested it with Grado 125 and turned the volume to 4 (out of 10) for really loud and 2 for average listening level. This is great player if "you like it proud and loud" (Duncan).

This is not intended as a review but simply a take on this IMO great vintage player.
If it can even last under a portable situation (which I am very curious of since it lacks antishock), I don't see a reason why I should keep my Slimx anymore.
 
Apr 24, 2004 at 8:44 AM Post #2 of 14
I'm glad you like the D211 saint.panda
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That energy, that zest that is in this player, there is only one other player I know of that has it, so maybe the [sound] designer of the D211 worked on this other player also, is - the D-E905.

That being said, I personally preffered the D211
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You've got yourself a winner there, and so long as you can use the player horizontally in your portable environment (sat on a bus etc?!) then it shouldn't have that many problems with skipping either
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Apr 24, 2004 at 8:49 AM Post #3 of 14
Hmm...

Intentional double post as my original one ^^ didn't push this thread to the top (timed out IE and then did some weird stuff).
 
Apr 24, 2004 at 9:16 AM Post #4 of 14
strange things going on here...

Anyway... working again normally now...

Up we go
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Apr 24, 2004 at 9:30 AM Post #5 of 14
I did wondered in last few weeks, when I had to choose between D321 and D211. Unfortunately, the seller of D211 is in China and I simiply dont have any ideas to pay him from Hong Kong, so I got the D321.

I listen mainly some Brit-pop, espcially Radiohead, Piano Concertos and solo violin. D321 give me similar impression: The soundstage is wide while the positioning is not up to the best. You can clearly distingish where the recording was mastered. Yet the tone is a bit cold that when I listen Paganini 24 caprices the violin tends to be sharp, crisp but hard to finish the whole disc. In contrast, the guitar plays well and that's what a Accoustic guitar should be! It makes No Suprises and Street Spirit most enjoyable.
I love richer, warmer sound indeed, since ER4P is already not a sweet, mellow stuff.

Having tried Panasonic S450 and SX500 before, It's suprising that when in put the discman in bag and walk to school, S450 with 10s antiskip always got problems but D321 and SX500 (40s antiskip) never skips. With only 3s of ESP, D321 did a great job with a balance of sound quality and portable use (though the battery life should be around 6-8hr of playback with Sanyo 2100mAh NiMH cells and ESP on, that far shorter than SX500 which I can use it for a whole week, say around 40-50hrs). I'm still considering whether I should sell the SX500 or keep it....

And I hope to get an older discman with a warmer sound soon, but still got no idea since i only got D350, 250, 150, 303 and 515 to choose. Forget those expensive D-Z555 as I'm not prepared to pay USD>150 for a discman.
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Apr 24, 2004 at 2:49 PM Post #6 of 14
galileo c

I agree, the D321 is seriously underrated here... that being said, there are various people (including myself) who have had / do have issues with the AVLS switch coming on all by itself... or worse still, not being able to defeat it
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Apr 24, 2004 at 4:28 PM Post #7 of 14
Duncan,
Simpily call me Galileo ~

I dont have the confident to open up the haul and fix the AVLS, and some people did tell me to use alcohol to clean the switch and blow away the dust to fix the problem. Seems that's a possible method?

I might give it a check next week when the semester ends.
 
Apr 24, 2004 at 9:20 PM Post #8 of 14
Quote:

I haven't quite figured what the DDS is for but in some songs it adds some echo.


DDS stands for "Digital Dynamic Sound". It makes the quieter parts of the track louder which, in a sense, means compressing the dynamic range of the music. It was made for use in noisy environments, but I wouldn't use it for normal listening in a reasonably quiet environment.
 
Apr 24, 2004 at 9:29 PM Post #9 of 14
is the socket on the remote a little one, smaller than 3.5mm? If so Sony make an adapter for it to accept 3.5mm jacks.

I used to have one for my MZR-35 minidisc portable.
 
Apr 24, 2004 at 9:43 PM Post #10 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by damitamit
is the socket on the remote a little one, smaller than 3.5mm? If so Sony make an adapter for it to accept 3.5mm jacks.

I used to have one for my MZR-35 minidisc portable.



For the remotes... yes, PC-MP1S (or something like that
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) is the part #... Audiocubes sell them
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Galileo.

Opening up the D321 is easy (compared to some of the earlier models
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) although if you do, be carefule of the springs that support the laser mechanism
smily_headphones1.gif


Best of luck!

Duncan.
 
Apr 29, 2004 at 6:53 PM Post #11 of 14
Today I took my D211 on a little city tour and I was very curious whether it could live up to my expectations....
First of all, anti-shock isses: No problems on the subway. Then I put the discman vertically into the front case of my bagpack and started walking....the music continued...big relief
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Sure it stopped when I went down stairs or started running but otherwise it worked very well even at a well-paced walking tempo.
Soundwise, I was again surprised by the musical volume (I don't mean how loud it went) but the amount of musical involvement. I've never been this deep within my music in a portable situation. The Slimx350 is no competition except for its mp3 ability. Headphones used were a Koss Ksc35.
And this little thingy goes loud
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Apr 30, 2004 at 3:35 PM Post #12 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan
For the remotes... yes, PC-MP1S (or something like that
wink.gif
) is the part #... Audiocubes sell them
smily_headphones1.gif


Galileo.

Opening up the D321 is easy (compared to some of the earlier models
eek.gif
) although if you do, be carefule of the springs that support the laser mechanism
smily_headphones1.gif


Best of luck!

Duncan.



Duncan,

I just opened it yesterday, and I immediately realise the problem: Some anti-shock springs are rusted off, and the volume rheostat is oxidised.

Then I cleaned the springs in alcohol, and dripped several drops into the volume switch. Now it works great, and even can be used without ESP on the road (Provided that my bag is filled up with stuffs, the discman merely encounter shocks...)
 
Apr 30, 2004 at 6:22 PM Post #13 of 14
Thats good news galileo
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Yes, a lot of the times, just a little maintenance is all is needed to get them back into a good operational condition... I personally haven't had to resort to twiddling with pots on any of the players i've had... hopefully it'll stay that way too
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