Once a legitimate blog. Now just a collection of memes 'n menz.
Yeah, that’s my newest Sony CD Walkman. I bought it labeled “untested – for parts or repair” to fill up my last shadow box and it’s one of those rare “untested” beasts that not only looks great but is actually completely functional. This one’s a keeper and will not end up under glass.
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I discovered I had two leftover shadow box frames from my Minidisc project last year. I thought I’d switch it up a bit so I searched everyone’s favorite auction site for “Parts Or Repair” portable CD players. This one came up for $20 and I figured it was worth it. If it did work—or I could get it working, I could easily flip it (because I didn’t really need another portable player), but if not, I could put one of those shadow boxes to use.
Obviously I couldn’t get it working. The disc would spin, the laser would search for the table of contents and then shut down. I tried adjusting the laser gain and focus controls, but to no avail. It wasn’t a great player by any means, but it was pretty and therefore it went into the “art” category.
This model is a strange beast. It fell in the transition period between the all metal mid 80s players (that I adore despite their lack of skip protection) and the all plastic era of the 90s. The case is all plastic, but lacks any sort of skip protection, and the innards more resemble the metal models than the plastic ones, what with the multiple circuit boards and connecting wires that ran everywhere.
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Almost period-appropriate for the player this morning.
I remember the drummer Enrique “Kiki” Garcia always give me the tingles down there. It’s funny how I realize now that for the most part, all of the actors and musicians who had such a profound effect on me in my 20s and 30s were my peers in age.
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Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (1985)
On May 13, 1985, Dire Straits Released Their 5th Album, “Brothers in Arms.” It spent 9 weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart, and has sold over 30 Million copies worldwide. It was also the first album to sell over 1 Million copies in CD format.
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Well…not really. Try as I might, I was unable to resuscitate the nugget. So I bought another one [tapping forearm to locate a vein] that was already working and I’m not the least bit disappointed.
I sold the D-10—the one that started this whole obsessive journey—at a substantial loss last week, so despite the fact it was at a loss, I’m strangely glad to be rid of it at the same time (so much for “keeping it for many years to come,” eh?). I don’t consider myself a collector, but honestly—but how many of a thing is considered a collection?
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I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. Seller noted it as non-functional with a “no disc” error, but it was cheap and I thought why not give repairing it a shot? I’ve seen enough YouTube videos to know that the fix for the “no disc” error was simple – just some basic cleaning and a bit of tweaking of the laser’s potentiometer. Hell, one video I watched even had this exact model and the numbers on the multimeter I needed to match to get it working.
Unfortunately, even after attaching a meter and mirroring what was shown in the video (and afterward a whole lot of playing around with other values), it still stubbornly refuses to read discs. The laser and the transport mechanism is verified as working (it moves normally and attempts to focus), but so far I’ve had no luck resuscitating it.
I did note that someone else had already been into it. The screws that hold the top plate of the bottom half of the unit in place all but fell out when I went to remove them, so who knows what’s been fucked around with? (Says the guy who’s fucking around with it.)
I’m half-tempted to seek out a working unit and just throw this one in the donate pile. I do rather like the styling of this lil’ nugget.
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Which is my favorite? Hard to say. They each have their charms, idiosyncrasies, and downright fails.
For sound quality alone, it’s a toss-up between the D-10 and D-15. My bedside unit is the D-171 because in the dark I can identify all the controls by touch. I alternate between the other three to take back and forth to the office and they all have excellent anti-skip protection.
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…someone has a out-of-control coke habit if they think they’re gonna get anywhere near that much money for that.
(Okay, it is on the “rare” side, but mint, still-in-the-original-packaging players of this model typically sell for only $100-300.
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I will readily admit I prefer the sound of Sony’s early, all-metal portable CD players, but there’s an elegant simplicity of the later, plastic models that can’t be denied.
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From the original post on Reddit:
Popped the top case off and taped the “open lid” switch down with some electrical tape. I used a paper clip through the screw holes for the lid to mount the button interface above the disc. Mounted the base to a CD case to prop it up at an angle or lay it flat. Got the Durabrand CD-895 from the goodwill for 2.99 last night and now I have this thing.
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