1980s Goodwill CD Player, Does It Still Work? 

Nice to see your posting videos again, been quite a bit since you've done any pc stuff!

We need those kind of goodwill junk stores in here. Sites like OLX have expensive junk with devious sellers... Last time I repaired a shelf cd-player, it was a AKAI. This AKAI was a basic cd-player with only analog output and no amp. It had a problem.... a broken cd tray belt. I cracked opened it unscrewing 5 rear screws and 4 side screws. I had to unscrew the cd reader part and remove some attached cables to the logic pcb and remove the top protect plastic and the tray itself. I removed the 2 pieces of broken belt and figured which size it might be. Then I went to my collection of broken desktop cd drives and removed a belt. First try went ok. I installed the belt and worked flawlessly. I put cd reader part back together, tested the cd tray, it ejects and goes in fine. Then assembled back together. Then I noticed some other problem. The analog RCA was a bit lose and there was a cracked joint.... I had to unscrew the 9 screws, then the SINGLE screw that holds the 2 analog left and right in place (the single screw instead of being in the middle, it was on the left side of the left audio input). I had to detach the cables again and see what's going on on that area of the RCA input. Broken connection caused by fatigue of RCA cable input. I reflowed that connection and before that, I superglued the input to the pcb for extra strength. A bit of nail polish where the single screw sits and screwed it gently. This will prevent it from unscrewing. Assempled the cd-player again. All fine. Shame the display is a bit dim.

Please do VANTAGE PC VIDEOS AGAIN ... WHERE IS YOUR PC AT AND PENTIUM PRO BUILD?

This technology is aging rapidly, like the man who chose poorly in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

good video!

Looks like a Sony transport, and the Sony chips on the PCB are used to control it. The DAC is a good old multibit DAC, very decent quality if nothing special. This DAC is a voltage source (as opposed to many DACs that are current sources) and does not require I/V conversion, the output stage looks like it does not have any opamps in it. In general, this simple old CD player probably sounds better than many later designs...

I just bought a refurbished Pioneer PD 88x cd player from a Hi-Fi shop. I think I overpaid in hindsight. I'll share the results when it's delivered. I hope it doesn't sound terrible. "Experts" say that newer CD players have far better digital to analog conversion.

It's so wild to me that CDs have been around for that long.

I use cassettes daily and I just wish I had more cassettes. It's an everyday hunt haha

Does this have to be hooked to a receiver to work??