Just picked up a Sony CDP-203ES

Markoneswift

Quartz locked n ready to rock
Hey all,

I haven't posted for a while, been busy getting the new house all sorted out and having a purge on gear.

Having now purged my gear as far as I want to, I have acquired another piece - a Sony CDP-203ES for $30. This is probably more than many of you would expect to pay for one in the US but these things are rare here. It has the original remote with it too, which is a plus. On the downside, it has tray loading issues but form reading up on the subject it seems likely to be a tray drive belt or laser mech belt that needs replacing. I'll follow that with a good lube of the whole tray mech with lithium grease.

It should arrive tomorrow, so I'll put up pics once it gets here.

Cheers
 
I'm in the US and I would pay $30 for that cdp all day long!

Good to know ! It's always hard trying to judge the relative value of these things, even though I know it was a pricey player back in the day. I was super happy that it came in the box with remote and manuals too !
 
I've started investigating the possible causes of the tray loading problem and I've already learned a few things about Cd players ! This Sony unit has a belt drive open / close mechanism and the first thing that struck me was the drive belt seems a bit slack. I removed the tray part of the mechanism (easy, just six clips) which then revealed the drive gear assembly. I removed the belt and found it had stretched into an elliptical shape - it's also quite dry. I'm guessing that this belt can no longer transfer all the torque required to move the sub-tray assembly which is responsible for raising the cd clamp arm - if I push the sub-tray manually from the back during an open operation, it does open fine. During a close, the tray goes 3/4 back in but closes fully if I pull gently on the sub-tray.

So next phase is to order a new drive belt - I managed to find dimensions for the belt from an online electronics store and then translate the dimensions into mm so I could order a similar belt form a local supplier. I've gone for a belt which is slightly smaller (25mm dia, as opposed to 27mm) and a bit thicker (1.8mm square, opposed to 1.68 original). I'm also going to lube the slope where the CD clamp arm rides up, to reduce mechanical effort required to raise it. Hopefully, we should be back in business again soon !

Cheers !

IMG_20161128_092613.jpg IMG_20161128_092631.jpg
 
New drive belt arrived today and its a lovely fit. Lubed up the tray and sled with white lithium grease and everything works great - tray open / close no problem, playback fine. This CDP seeks at a crazy speed and is very accurate at tracking even on pretty beat up disks. Happy !
 
Not so happy ! When put back into the chassis, the transport is noisy and seems to struggle reading discs. Outside the chassis, it runs / reads quickly and pretty quietly. Does anyone have any ideas what might cause this ??

Thanks.
 
I did resolve this issue eventually. It turned out that when the transport was out of the chassis, I had it sat on a piece of board. This caused a bit if pressure on the underside of the motor which, in turn, pushed the disc up onto the clamping puck above.

When fitted into the chassis, the motor hung lower and the CD was not contacting the puck sufficiently. The reason for this, I found, was a broken pivot on the arm which holds the puck above the CD. There was insufficient pressure due to the broken pivot so I tied a rubber band around the base of the arm. This seems to have fixed it up as the increased pressure makes playback silent and tracking is fine again.
 
I picked up a CDP- 302 a few months back and love it. Found the remote on eBay and it's all good now. Here's the info on the D/A converter in your deck

SONY CDP-203ES
CX20152 - CX23034
KSS-123A
 
Last edited:
I just got a Sony CD player today from my favorite Salvation Army, it's the model CDP 392 at a
great price $9.99 brought it home, hooked her up and it plays great more high end and bass
than the Magnavox I pickup a few weeks ago. It must be Sony CD month I guess!
 
Good job trouble shooting and fixing your Sony . I have a Cdp-302 . I always thought Sony put extra effort into styling and they produced some beautiful players .
 
I opened my Sony up and theirs nothing inside except a small board in the rear holding the
small transformer, two caps and the inputs and in the front a stand up board and the transport.
I saw the inside of the ES and that's a nice built deck.
 
Hey, my 203ES is working now. I don't know why it went to the needs work pile but cleaning the storage shed in my entrance foyer and moving this cdp got me to put it on the bench. Tray didn't move.

Pull the mechanism out of the chassis, three screws and messed with it. Works fine now, but I'm looking at replacing the belts soon if it sounds good. Noticed the output chip is the 5532 and I've replaced those before with a few different better sounding chips. Might do this one, too.

No remote but it works with the Sony remote I have for other players.

Moving it to the working pile.

Thanks for the write up with all the details.

Sure would be nice to get a copy of the Owner's Manual for this unit.
 
Back
Top Bottom