zorin
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2011
- Posts
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- 68
I would not recommend PBD V30. There was a class action lawsuit against Sony / PBD V30. Very high rate of failure due to a faulty component. The best options for you are : 1. D 303 with headphone out, analogue line out and digital/optical line out. 2. D 465 / 475 with headphone out and line out + digital/optical line out from the same jack. Soundwise D 303 is better than D 465 / 475 versions if you plan to use these discmans as portable cd platforms as well and not just using them as a recording source. If on the scale of 1 to 10 D 303 is a 10, then I would rank D 465 / 475 a 7 or 8. The current miserable crop of portable cd players is below level 3. If you decide to get one of these 2 Sonys, you will have to recondition them, they are some 15 or 20 years old. Optical sled assembly should be cleaned of dirt/dust and of old drying lubricant and re-lubricated and should have the optical head/lens cleaned [ by a profesional ]. The motor might need a drop of the machine oil. Get the essential spare parts if you plan to have and use these discmans for years to come. 1. spindle motors [ most common problem ] - for D 303 the motor is Mabuchi RF-410. If you google it you will find a supplier, I saw it being sold for around 20 USD. Get 2 to be safe, the production will stop at some point. 2. SMD or Surface mount capacitors, there are a few of them in each of the discmans. In D 303 those that will need replacing - SMD capacitor Panasonic CXA1272 100 uf / 6.3 V in servo circuit plus SMD Panasonic capacitors 100 uf / 6.3 V in secondary power supply circuit. ( this info. thanks to ' Kaosun ' / head-fi ). The best thing is to get all SMD capacitors as spares. 3. Laser unit assembly . 4. Sled motor 5. Motor unit assembly or 6. the option of getting the whole combo Laser unit assembly+ Motor unit assembly together. Good option is to buy another discman of the same type for the spares. Going through all this will give you security of having a functioning discman for many years and the sound that at least from the line out is better than the sound from i-pod. If you decide to bid for a D 303 on ebay drop a post about it on this forum, i will give you advice/help.