Sony CDP-555ESD
(1986 - 1987)

One of the most successful high-end CD players of the 1980s - Sony built this as it had made the original CDP-701ES in 1983.

With 4fs oversampling and a dual digital-to-analogue converter, separate LPF modules and a master clock beating at 16.9344MHz, this was, in 1986, ultra high-end. Also new was the digital output which gave the CDP-555ES its "D" suffix. Therefore, definitely gone were the unclear mentions of a subcode output able to transmit graphics and images while the CD was playing - that became Laserdisc only and, soon enough, CD-i.
Also making its appearance was the "G" chassis -G for Gibraltar- somewhat reminiscent of Sony's own 1970s SBMC and at first called Cerasin ; the entire base of the 555ESD was made of that damping material and the mechanism itself received a layer of it, too. The "G" drive would resurface on the CDP-R3, CDP-X779ES, CDP-X707ES and CDP-R1a after the very successful period using the BU-10 aluminium base, as seen in the other X7 CD players (CDP-X557ESD, X7ESD, X77ES, X777ES). The center of all of these remains a magnetic linear motor - guaranteed to last at least 10 years and, in practice, between 15 and 20 years.

The drive itself was built to exacting mechanical tolerances, PCB tracks were large and the rest is all metal and aluminium, with two large power transformers stacked outside the main enclosure.
Sony IC production was then going full speed and all IC and chips inside the CDP-555ESD came from home : CXA-1082Q (servo control), CXA-1081M (RF amp), CXD-1125 / CXD-1135, CXD-1088Q and more. Btw, CXA means Analogue IC and CXD Digital IC.

The CDP-555ESD would'v looked great in gunmetal grey, à la TA-N86B, even better in bronze, à la TA-N7B - the times however called for stricter black. You can see in this unit some of the design staples that would find their way into the DTC-1000ES (1987) and DTC-1500ES (1990), among others. This is when Sony's most successful period started, even pushing the brand to become the worldwide most positively recognized in 1990. Gone by days, isn't it ?