Sony CDP-338ESD CD player c/w KSS-151A-ideal as CD Transport

Further Information: 

This comes from my collection which is now being reduced.

Ideal to be used as Transport, with KSS-151A, magnetic drive, friction-less mechanism. One of two or three best designs ever made. Inferior maybe only to the much older KSS-190A.

Instant track access, forward and backward search. Reads any CD or CD-R (I threw at it) and easily exceeds Red Book fault tolerance of 0.9mm interruption in data layer or black dot painted on the surface.

Unlike later designs, everything is made from metal; chassis, tray, loader, everything.

Tray runs on hidden brass rail (as in KSS-190A), which I have only just discovered, because these are so reliable that there was never any need to take one apart.

Around the tray, there is a silicon seal which not only adds to the silent operation and quiet closing, but also prevents any ingress of dust inside. This not only reduces wear, but also keeps dust away from electronics and prevents overheating.

The machine inside looks like new.

When I was still actively repairing CD players, one of these CDP-338ESD was my Transport of choice for close to 3 years.

Excellent SPDIF output trace, almost as good as Wadias (which I am now using) or Accuphase Dp-80L Transport and massively superior to any Marantz or C.E.C.

As a bonus, it also has 2 x Burr-Brown PCM-58 DAC chips.

Both fixed and variable analogue outputs.

On the negative side, the remote is not as pristine and has same battle scars...

For those who worry about lasers - which, contrary to popular belief, do not normally fail at all - this unit has a laser which is... in better condition now that when it was new.

I know that it is not possible but this is what the measurements actually say.

Sony in their service manual state, that when the current consumption of the laser diode increases by 10mA it should be replaced.

The 2nd picture below shows that the current at factory was measured at 66.9mA (669 is stamped on the laser head sticker in the second row).

The way the current is measured, is that a voltage drop on 22 ohm resistor that supplies current to the diode is 1.434V. (1st picture below)

That divided by 22 (ohms), gives a current of 65.18mA which is less than it had when new (66.9mA), so instead of showing some wear, it has improved. 

I did see this once before and this possibly is due to either some error in measurement at the factory, or the servo working better than expected.

Buyer to pay for shipping  and 50% of SNA fees.

Edited 4 hours ago by rockeater