Bought a 1985 Sony cdp-302

[Robcrx]

Picked up the Sony cdp 302 locally here in Toronto area today for $50.
It is in perfect condition cosmetically, front face is perfect, looks as though it hasn't been used alot. Cleaned up a few finger prints on the buttons. The unit is quite heavy as most of it is metal. The buttons make a nice solid click sound. It plays awesome and sounds real nice and airy too.
The guy I got it from is French and his wife couldnt even speak 1 word of english. He's a long time vintage audio collector and has some awesome gear in his basement.
Here is a great link (not mine) with description of the player and a couple of good pictures.


Anyways, is there any service items I should get done ? Clean lens ? Replace caps ?

Some exterior pics







Topless view: very good old school, little plastic, lots of heavy metal. Proper transformer in the power supply.





Old school little known Sony DAC CX20152 giving "pure" hospital grade vintage digital sound. Some loved it, others re-converted to vinyl because of it.





Here she's up side down showing her inner beauty. The laser transport is state-of-the-art electro-mechanical marvel. To quote an expert from the link posted above: Disc loading and track access is faster than greased lightning on a banana peel. And that's exactly right!




Quick video I found of it on youtube:

Sony cdp-302 transport in action - YouTube

[stephensank]

With fairly rare exceptions, all that 302's and other Sony's with the same mech generally need is attention to the tray loading mech. The grease used to lub the gear & pulley shafts & tray rails is of a type that tends to turn into dry sludge, causing slowing of loading & premature wear of the two loading belts. Clean out all the grease, relub with small amounts of light silicone grease, replace the two belts & it should load almost as fast as it changes tracks, and be that fast for years.

[Robcrx]

Originally Posted by stephensank

With fairly rare exceptions, all that 302's and other Sony's with the same mech generally need is attention to the tray loading mech. The grease used to lub the gear & pulley shafts & tray rails is of a type that tends to turn into dry sludge, causing slowing of loading & premature wear of the two loading belts. Clean out all the grease, relub with small amounts of light silicone grease, replace the two belts & it should load almost as fast as it changes tracks, and be that fast for years.

What is the proper way of cleaning up the old grease ?
Is it necessary to replace the old capacitors ?

[PlasticIsGood]

Delicious, isn't it? I have a 102 that looks pretty much identical inside, with the same selection of tasty plastic caps. Easily the best mechanics I've seen, and I like the sound too. Tests well compared to Philips of the era, surprisingly considering it's DAC has half its guts hanging out, and there's a delay between the two channels because they are updated alternately. The audio stages go on forever...

That delay was a propaganda disaster that cost Sony its brand leadership amongst snooty European audiophiles, I think.

I've been trying to think of a use for the "subcode out"...

Yours has a headphone output, which mine sadly lacks. I'm envious. But mine has the silver touch-sensitive membrane!

[PlasticIsGood]

Originally Posted by Robcrx

What is the proper way of cleaning up the old grease ?

Laboriously, with tissues and string and cotton buds, followed by a fine brush and a vacuum cleaner, in my case, to remove any dust from the tissues.

If you use spray silicon grease, spray it carefully onto a cotton bud several times, then let the solvent evaporate before wiping the parts lightly. If you're buying grease specifically for this purpose, get special plastic grease in the same mail order as the caps.

Look at the lens very closely and decide if it needs cleaning. If so, wipe with a damp, not wet, cotton bud, very gently without pressing. Do this even if the dirt doesn't interfere with play.

Is it necessary to replace the old capacitors ?

Not if they are not causing trouble. Chances are that they will be considerably degraded, but there is lots of margin. I replaced the output caps with non-polar electrolytics, and the smaller electrolytics around the DAC and the following integrator/sample-and-hold stage with the lowest ESR I could find...Rubycon YXF I believe. The only difference I could hear was from the output cap swap. I also socketed the opamps involved in the S&H stage, but I forget exactly why. At present I'm using MC34082. The standard 5532 are fine in the other positions I think.
If your drawer opens with a bit of a thump, there's a foam washer...the only cheap bit of the mech...on the front end of the rod that the drawer slides on. Mine had turned to crumbs. I made a split washer out of neoprene foam and glued the split after passing it over the rod. No disassembly needed.

[Robcrx]

Opened up the cd player today.
I immediately saw dust balls in there ! There was a tonne of dust !
Grabbed some qtips and a brush and slowly lifted up the dust.
Got most of the big stuff out, then used some light compressed air to blow the excess out.
Now the board is nice and clean. All looks good inside, no leaky caps and no burnt resistors.
Used a qtip to remove some excess dirty grease on the try rollers and lubed the rails a bit, even though they had plenty of grease aleady.
Finally, I grabbed a flash light and shined it on the laser lense. I noticed it did have some dirt/dust on it, so I removed it gently with a qtip, no liquid. Surprised it didnt skip with that dirt on the laser lense.
Lastly, tightened the rear RCA jack output post since it was a bit loose. Put it back together and fired it up.
Plays just as good as before, but I did notice it sounDed crisper now ! Must be my imagination.

LoL