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Very specific question about Sony CDP-C435...

deaddude

New Member
I recently bought a "slightly used" SONY CD player at an estate sale of a former Sea World executive who had passed away and whose surviving family members did not want to keep the stereo equipment (the SONY model number of the unit is: CDP-C435), and even though it does not have digital outputs and I cannot use it with my "external DAC setup", it is in PRISTINE condition and it is HANDS DOWN the best CD player that I have personally ever had.

However, I am having an issue with the player that is not explained anywhere in the user manual and I need to know if anybody out there has ever had this specific unit and could tell me if I am doing "something wrong" or if something might be wrong with the device itself. This player has a 1/4" headphone jack along with TWO sets of RCA analog stereo output jacks (one is "fixed line-level" and the other is "variable"), and I have NEVER seen a player that has these comnections. I connected the "fixed line-level" jacks to the "standard AUX input" RCA jacks on my BOSE Wave Music I system via a "normal-but-good-quality" RCA stereo cable (the internal CD slots on my BOSE have been broken for several years, so I just use it as a "receiver" and hook up all my external equipment to it in order to use the SUPERB speakers). I have been TOTALLY enjoying my CD collection for over a month now!

One of my cousins just moved to Japan and could not take her gear overseas, so she gave everything to me. One thing that she gave me was a "professional-style" set of JBL headphones with a 1/4" connector (I have NEVER had anything with 1/4" plugs before), so I wanted to plug it into my SONY and compare it to the sound coming out of the BOSE Wave via the RCA jacks. I was BLOWN AWAY by how crisp and loud the sound was on these headphones, so I wanted to try to see if I could "monitor" the sound from the headphones at the same time as it was playing through the BOSE Wave. Nothing "tripped" when I did this (so maybe this SONY player could be designed to allow people to do exactly this), but after about 20 minutes of playback, the sound through the BOSE became "warped and distorted". I unplugged the JBL headphones and the sound became "normal" again.

So my question is this: is my player designed to allow sound through BOTH connections at the same time (which means there might be something wrong with the "internal DAC") or is it supposed to "trip" one of the connections like I have heard that most equipment that have 1/4" jacks seem to do (which means there is definitely something wrong inside the device)? Like I said before, the user manual for this SONY CD player says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this scenario.

Any suggestions and/or insights would be GREATLY appreciated.
 
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This changer is around 40 years old and for starters, it could use a good cleaning of the connections with a product like Deoxit. For the headphone jack, spray inside the jack and then insert the plug multiple times, 20 or more and see if there's any improvement. If not, you may need to remove the cover to get to the rear of the jack where the conracts are and spray the contacts several times while plugging the headphone in and out. Just a good start.
 
My Sony CDP-X111ES player has fixed and variable RCA output jacks on the rear panel.
Tim
 
Every "old" Sony CD player I've had that's had a headphone jack has needed to have the volume pot replaced.

Ah. I see the front volume control, controls the headphone volume *AND* the back panel variable out.
134203-15e567ca-sony_cdpc435_5_disk_cd_changer.jpg


user manual here... https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/cdp-c435.shtml

I see from the service manual that the volume pot comes before both the variable out and the headphone amp.
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