Sony CDP-555ESD

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, separate LPF modules, ELNA Duorex, For Audio and MUSE caps all over and a master clock beating at 16.9344MHz, this was, in 1986, ultra high-end.

The rest is all metal and copper-plated aluminium chassis-in-chassis, with two large power transformers stacked outside the main enclosure, large PCB tracks, regulations and copper heatsinking of all important and not so important circuit points.

Also new was the PCM 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 (that became Laserdisc only and, soon enough, CD-i) or the dual-purpose back switch between PCM and graphics of the previous CDP-552ESD series.


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, the BU-1E, was made of it.
After the very successful period using the aluminium base/mechanism (which is only another version of the 555ESD's BU-1E), the "G-only" drive would resurface on the CDP-R3, CDP-X779ES, CDP-X707ES and CDP-R1a.

The center of all of these remains a big, very big, magnetic linear motor - guaranteed to last at least 10 years and, in practice, between 15 and 20 years. Or more.

Sony IC production was then going full speed and almost all ICs and chips inside the CDP-555ESD came from home : CXA-1082Q (servo control), CXA-1081M (RF amp), CXD-1125 (digital signal process.), CXD-1088Q (4fs oversampling). Btw, CXA means Analogue IC and CXD Digital IC.
The d/a itself, however, is a single Philips TDA-1541 while output op'amps are JRC 5532DD (for the headphones, too) and TI NE5534P.


The CDP-555ESD would've 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.
The 555SED was a CDP-705ESD in the USA and a CDP-555SD everywhere else.

This is when Sony's most successful period started. So much so that Sony was the worldwide most positively recognized brand in 1990 - products and logo.
Gone by days, isn't it ?


You can see and read an in-depth review at The Lampizator.

Detailed views of the chassis here and even more at the same here.