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Buy
some other company's first attempt at a CD player.
Or buy Sony's fifth : the CDP-400.
The US litterature from january 1984 says the CDP-400
used the same laser assembly, error-correction circuits and DAC
as Sony's own 7000$ professional [CDP-5000S]
model...
I don't know if the 400 really was Sony's 5th generation but a manufacturer's
sell-sheet is bound to be on the lyrical side of things. Furthermore,
the 5000S used a Fixed Pickup Mechanism (reused much later in the
CDP-X5000,
CDP-MS1
or CDP-XA55ES
for instance) - something which the 501ES didn't have.
Unlike most of the 1st gen' CD players, the CDP-400 took on a normalized
width (43cm) and, unlike its grandaddy the CDP-101,
did have a STOP button.
And it must have been a nice player indeed for it was rebadged here
and there as a CDP-501,
CDP-501ES and CDP-610ES : the
european 501 was identical in every way, the 501ES also but bore
a black faceplate (ES oblige) while the 610ES was the US version
of the 501ES ; all of these shared the same service manual. The
CDP-400 is the USA name for
the CDP-501 ; the original japanese
non-ES version is the CDP-111
; the original japanese ES version is the... CDP-501ES
:-) |