sony cdp557esd

can sony get any better than this ?

This is a short report about the super bolid - top of the top - almighty 557ESD.
No lampization this time - sorry. Maybe some day ...

I had to write this - out of my deepest admiration of what Sony was capable of  a few years ago before globalization.
 
Some facts:
ESD was a fabulous series of players of which 557 is the top model.
The whole player is damn heavy: there is not one single plastic part : top to bottom, front to back - everything is made of metal. Buttons, drawer, mechanism, tracking, laser cast assembly, - everything.



sony cdp557ESD

The metallic drawer with aluminium face plate and neoprene sealing surround.



sony cdp557ESD



The ergonomics is the same as all the ESD series. Famili similarity but WITHOUT part sharing with cheaper models. And make no mistake about it - DIGITAL.




sony cdp-557ESD


The raw power supply - as you can see - is fantastic. Elna caps which would cost doday 30 Euro a pop. Really gigantic and very very good.




sony cdp-557ESD

The AC inlet PCB, has ferrite coils and capacitor filters - everything that a good engineer should put there. What can I say.




sony cdp-557ESD


Every capacitor on these beautifully hand painted PCB is premium type, and each is selected for the particular application - green for digital, red for audio analog, black for raw. All Elnas of variuous types.

Only the clock crystall is a typical cheap one. I upgraded it to superclock.



sony cdp-557ESD


sony cdp-557ESD


Some chips. The gray cable on the bottom carries SPDIF before it is screwed up in the chips that process it before output. Thats the place to tap it - from this white plug.







sony cdp-557ESD

Ladies and gentlemen - these are the DACS ! Secret dacs under a slice of ceramisc.
Note the copper rails - center one is earth, and it is surrounded by plus/minus 12 V for the various purposes.







sony cdp-557ESD

Curiosity killed the cat but I HAD to uncover these dacs. PCM-64P ??? Jamais couche avec. Never heard of.

The alldatasheet  service shows the dac application - there is NO AUDIO output. This DAC apparently needs surounding electronics to produce output. I can not detect the place to tap to with lampizator. I did not have time to test it so I gave up. The owner didnt even know I was there inside. To him - this player is a virgin.




sony cdp-557ESD


Wow, look at these regulators, whole rows of them. copper heatsinks, luxury everywhere !









Oh no, even the screws are luxury. Gucci screws. Look at these threads !!!!





sony cdp-557ESD



sony cdp-557ESD



sony cdp-557ESD

Two fully potted, shielded and encapsulated transformers. In 555ESD they hang outside, here they squeezed them inside. How nice.





sony cdp-557ESD


The best part ... the transport. Identical mechanism like KSS190A but with BU1 laser. It can only arguably be bettered by the Kenwood machine - like in 1000D, DPX9010 and DP8010.


sony cdp-557ESD




sony cdp-557ESD


After all these cheap mechanisms I have seen so far, looking at this one or better - seeing it in action is like sex.



sony cdp-557ESD


sony cdp-557ESD


The chips are for documentation purposes just in case.




Note the silkscreen descriptors - every single part and section is described.
It makes service or lampization so much easier.


This player sounds very good in stock form. It sounds like the best of ESD in stock form. Not much better than others, but a little bit better.
I know nothing about the lampized sound, so I cant comment how good our PCM64 really is.

But there is a good end to this story.  This player got a new super clock, the SP/DIF signal was picked directly from the CXD1125 chip - pin 27th.  It was then sent to new RCA via a coax cable and terminated with the 75 Ohm resistor in parallel and 10 nF cap in series.
This player became a TRANSPORT, and the best one I ever tested. I admit - not having many high end transports at home, but from regular CD players - noting was as good as transport. It beat CEC TL1X in its new home.