The remote capable 333ESA is a well build, 220~240V unit which weights about 12kg.
This CDP was recapped a while back after my friend puchased it on my behalf overseas. Hence apologies as I do not have the original pix of the internals.
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| CDP with Tubalog via TOS link |
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| Rear |
On the rear, the unit has a pair of fixed and another pair of variable outputs. Digital output is via TOS link only.
In stock form the unit portrait voices well in a warm conveying manner, unfortunately at the expense of background details. The background details were push back and well "veil-ed".
The previous owner installed a EMI filter but left it un-earth to the chasis. To rectify the issue, I placed a piece of old leather under the filter to isolate it from the chasis - see below.
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| Power filter with insulation |
I recapped the audio section of the board only, leaving the power filter caps in-place since these seem to be in good condition and more than adequate for a CDP.
To remove the veil from the background details after initial recapping, I
upsized 4x0.1uF green poly(s) in the audio path with 0.22uF Wima(s) aka the medium sized Wima's in the pix. In addition, I upsized the two capacitors in the top left (rear view) from 10uF to 22uF to "mellow-nise" the reproduction. Electrolytics were replaced using Panasonic ECA/FC, Nichicon Gold and Rubycon of the same values. Naturally the better components are placed in the audio section of the board.
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| Top view |
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| View of motherboard from rear |
The results?
A past visitor who was familiar with the Sony ES range of CDP(s) was
pleasantly surprised at the performance and level of detail my 333ESA was delivering since he knew stock non-X7 models could not deliver the level of detail and warmth he was hearing! He is correct as my X7ESD is superb in many pleasing ways -
saving the best for a future post ...(bloody heavy too!!!)
