Y’know how if you haven’t heard some music in years, and you put it on and you’re immediately taken away to another place and time? Yeah, it’s like that.
I have a love/hate relationship with this player. On one hand, I think its classic mid-80s design is unmatched and it has a certain amount of nostalgic affection, the D-10 being the first second portable player I ever owned. On the other hand—and I’ve written about this ad nauseam—the damn thing skips if you so much as look at it funny. How I lived with this behavior back in the day is beyond me. Maybe it’s because the technology was still so new and borderline magic (when it worked) that its sensitivity to knocks and jolts was just something I lived with. I suppose that also explains why I went back to a cassette Walkman in 1990—at least for my commutes. I know I still loved it for stationary listening at work.
It also refuses to play certain discs without error all the way through. CDRs produce a constant hissing sound, and even commercial discs have to be pristine; no dust or—gods forbid—fingerprints, or they’ll glitch.
So why do I keep using it? The sound. It has one of the best, if not the best headphone amplifier of all my players. And it—along with my D-15—can easily drive my Sennheisers to a satisfying volume without having to be cranked up to 9 to get there.
Some of the sensitivity to dust and dirt no doubt is attributable to the unit needing routine service and a tuneup. The grease on the laser sled’s wormgear looks okay, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t dried bits of grease that require more disassembly and cleaning than I’m comfortable with. Fortunately, “I know a guy” who’s worked on this era of machines for me in the past and everything works like new after he’s worked his magic on it, but I don’t have the money right now. Maybe after the first of the month since there’s really no urgency since I have several other players I can use.
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