Three years ago I bought a working Sony Discman D-33. It was indeed working and I had been using it for some time. Then it sat in a shelf (in its box) until recently when I pulled it out to test it. Unfortunately it now has some problem with tracking on less-than-perfect discs and easily skips. I checked the lens and it is clean, I open it up to inspect it and I could not find anything wrong; I tried slightly adjusting focus bias and tracking bias but it seems current settings are optimal. One thing I noticed is that the spindle platter is slightly out of axis and the discs wobble while rotating. That surely does not help, but I guess it was like that also some years ago when it was working. I have not checked the eye pattern as I do not have an oscilloscope. Is the laser agonizing ? I have other discman's of similar vintage and they all work perfectly, including a couple of D-11's which have the very same optical pick-up. On ebay most D-33 on sale are for spare/repair so I guess it might be a "weak" model. Any suggestion ? Thanks
Hello, Does the player skip in sync with the spindle motor ? It skips mostly on first few tracks? My guessing(all credits to Jorge ) is that you might need to lubricate the spindle motor. Hope this helps!
Thanks for your reply; actually the skipping is quite random and the spindle motor is very silent. The D-33 is one of the first portable Sony CD player to clamp the disc on the spindle with three spheres rather than with a magnet. Now it's the most common clamp disc mechanism, but back then it was new and the spindle were more fragile; mine is missing a piece which helps keep the disc centred. Several of the D-33 I see on ebay has the very same problem so I guess it is a weak part. I think I will keep it as not working, I never actually like it much: surely it has a nice sounding DAC, but despite being very heavy it has a very cheap feeling with a flimsy lid.
Ahhh that could be the problem. Break the other two to balance it? Quote from this thread on Head-Fi.org "I will tell you what is so interesting about it: About a month ago I purchased an inoperative Sony Sports discman. It would spin up, try to read a disc, then shut down. Being a water-resistant Sports model, there was no obviously easy was to take it apart (no visible screws). While looking inside for access, I noticed that the spindle motor clamp had one open spot where I could see the red o-ring. Seemed odd to me that there was only one spot like this. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the one with the red o-ring showing had been covered by black plastic like the other 2 spots, but had been broken off. Speculating that the missing black piece was either causing the spindle to be unbalanced when spinning, or causing the CD to not be exactly centered on the spindle, I took a small slotted jewelers screwdriver and gently pried the other 2 pieces up, and removed them, making the remaining assembly symmetrical. Snapped on a CD, and VOILA! Where it would not play ANY CDs originally, it now plays redbook and CDRs perfectly. Strange but true. The only problem is that I have to press down with a finger on the center of the spindle to keep it from popping off when removing a CD. I'm only guessing, but the imbalance caused by the problem with your spindle may be making it difficult for your player to read CDRs. I am only relating my experience. What you choose to do is entirely up to you."
I Think that is exactly my problem; but anyway I will not break the other two pieces. It's just a collectible item, i will keep it as it is. I have many other portable CD players I like best Thanks for the info !
