Sony X5000 troubleshooting

Another question:
Today i checked the X5000 against a Philips CD-304MKII, a Twisted Pear ES 9018 Buffalo DAC and a simple HiFimeDIY ES9018K2M DAC wth Sabre9601.
Technology that was developed within three decades.
I played a silence signal (to prevent the relais from muting) to check if there was any noise from the units themselves.
I then ramped the volume of my 40W amp all the way up to check.
To my very surprise, the X5000 had some noticeable hiss, even with some distance from the speakers.

The Buffalo, the HifiMeDIY and even the 34 year old Philips were dead quiet!

The Buffalo has a shunt regulated power supply, blame it on that, but there is nothing special with the Philips. It has the same voltage 78xx/79xx type regulators as the Sony X5000.
Also the circuitry of the Philips are theoretically worse than the X5000 because digital , analog and servo share the same power supplies / voltage regulators. You cold not sell this
kind of layout to any serious audiphile in the late eighties anymore...:)

Anyway, I then checked the X5000 in Pause and Stop modes to find out that the hiss ist still there, unaltered. So no silent signal needed, powering the X5000 on is sufficient.

Could anyone check the noise floor of his X5000 to another player? XA50 ES should work as well...
All the best,
Salar
 
Last edited:
This machine seems to be a never ending story, old friend. I'm glad mine doesn't have the click problem at all. And also its little brother, the 3000, runs well.
More serious problems I have with a number of SACD players. Seems like the mechanics in those machines are much more complicated...

Greetz, Hans
 
Anyone out there to test the noise level of his X5000 to any other digital source?
Again, no signal needed. The X5000 simply needs to be turned on without a CD being inserted (or the CD In Pause or in Stop mode).
For the comparison: Old CD-Players will probably have relais that mute the output and will be therefor silent. So they cannot not be used for comparison.
Modern players, musicservers or dacs do not use relais and are suitable.
 
Hi,

Found this thread and probably someone here can help me out.

It so happens that my beloved Sony CDP-X5000 finally got tired and the laser diode wore out. It stopped recognizing any CD (doesn't even read the TOC)

I need to find a replacement.

As far as I've understood, the drive mechanism of laser diode is out of stock (can anyone confirm the model?)


Does anyone know how could a repair the unit? Where could I find a replacement part?

Thank you
 
Hello. I don't have any cd with KSS-274A, but the procedure to change the diode laser should be similar.

I don't know if KSS-273B is equivalent to the KSS-274A as this ad suggests.

Sony KSS-274A (KSS-273A/B) Laser Pickup CDP-X5000/XA7ES/XA5ES/XA50ES/XA55ES NOS | eBay


I almost sure that KSS-272a is equivalent to KSS-271A, but I havent proved it.
There must to be studied the compatibility between KSS-273 and KSS-274, because in aliexpress are some Kss-273b.

kss-273b – Compra kss-273b con envio gratis en AliExpress version


By the moment I'm not experimenting with CDs players.
I have pending to try with some OPH-32 and similars, a KSS-151A and to try to rescue a KSS-272A with a KSS-183A, I broke the OPIC in the KSS-272a.
 
My friend, former Sony technician, and I were able to adapt the Sony Kss240a pickup in place of the now unavailable KSS274a of my CDP-X5000. We did some very delicate mechanical work and modified the RF amplifier board. We have been working for days, but now the result is exceptional from a performance point of view. The click at the beginning of the song is gone. The old laser, at the pin RF check up of the servo board did not even reach 600 mv, I am afraid that the click is due to the difficulty of reading the disc at higher speeds. Photos of the modified pickup will be sent soon.
Giancarlo
 
Hello. I don't have any cd with KSS-274A, but the procedure to change the diode laser should be similar.

I don't know if KSS-273B is equivalent to the KSS-274A as this ad suggests.

Sony KSS-274A (KSS-273A/B) Laser Pickup CDP-X5000/XA7ES/XA5ES/XA50ES/XA55ES NOS | eBay


I almost sure that KSS-272a is equivalent to KSS-271A, but I havent proved it.
There must to be studied the compatibility between KSS-273 and KSS-274, because in aliexpress are some Kss-273b.

kss-273b – Compra kss-273b con envio gratis en AliExpress version


By the moment I'm not experimenting with CDs players.
I have pending to try with some OPH-32 and similars, a KSS-151A and to try to rescue a KSS-272A with a KSS-183A, I broke the OPIC in the KSS-272a.

I have seen those pickups on Aliexpress, however, honestly, I would never buy such an expensive used laser without clear evidence that its emission is still strong.