Sony CDP-338ESD

A CD player that inherits the design philosophy of CDP-X7ESD.

Digital sync ICs are used to reduce jitter that occurs when digital signals are transmitted.
In the digital sync IC, the timing of the digital signal generated by the signal processing LSI is adjusted to the accuracy of the master clock immediately before the D/A converter. The master clock that determines the time axis accuracy of the signal is directly connected to the D/A converter. By adjusting the timing to the accuracy of the clean master clock that does not include jitter, the digital signal is adjusted again and output to the D/A converter. Since the effect of jitter does not affect the D/A converter and beyond, D/A conversion with accurate phase and faithful D/A conversion is possible.

The digital filter is equipped with CXD 1244 which is an 8 fs 45-bit noise shaping digital filter.
This digital filter performs 8 times oversampling and resamples the signal from 44.1 kHz to 352.8 kHz (8 times the sampling frequency) to increase the distance between the audio signal and the unwanted high-frequency components. This enables the use of a low-order low-pass filter with gentle cut-off characteristics in the analog portion after D/A conversion, greatly improving the group delay characteristics.
The CXD 1244 achieves the in-band ripple characteristics of ± 0.00001 dB and the echo level of -124dB or less due to its 45-bit high-order computing capability.

The CXD 1244 is capable of performing extremely high-precision operations with a 45-bit operation bit length. However, since the D/A converter can have only a limited number of bits, round-off errors occur and remain as quantization noise. To solve this problem, we have adopted a high-resolution D/A converter with excellent characteristics and introduced a noise-shaping method, which is incorporated into the CXD 1244.
Noise shaping takes advantage of an over-sampling time interval to incorporate low-order bit information that is normally lost by round-off errors into high-order data.

Equipped with digital de-emphasis function.
In digital de-emphasis, the de-emphasis process conventionally composed of analog circuits is digitally processed inside the digital filter, eliminating sound quality degradation caused by parts and circuits, and achieving ideal gain and phase characteristics.

The D/A converter IC is equipped with a high-precision linear D/A converter.
This is a high-speed operation type that corresponds to the data output speed of the 8 fs digital filter. It enables more advanced D/A conversion. This improves linearity for small-level signals. In addition, this D/A converter is an IC composed of one chip with high stability of conversion operation and realizes linear operation from the most significant bit to the least significant bit. Therefore, there is no nonlinear element in the input / output characteristics in principle. This eliminates the need for additional circuits such as gain switching and simplifies the analog circuit section.
In addition, by making the left and right channels independent of each other, the phase shift between the channels is eliminated.

The audio circuits after the D/A converter are twin-mono in accordance with the signal flow, eliminating phase shift and mutual interference between channels.

The power supply section is equipped with two large and large-capacity transformers that independently house the digital / servo section and audio section, thereby eliminating interference from the power supply.

The mechanism uses Sony's linear motor tracking mechanism that enables high-speed access with quiet operation, and is equipped with a G (Gibraltar) base unit with excellent vibration control.
This is made by adding calcium carbonate, which has the same composition as marbles, to a special resin and reinforcing it with glass fiber. The Kyoshin sharpness is greatly reduced and high rigidity is obtained. In addition, the entire mechanical block has a floating structure to eliminate external vibrations and prevent unwanted vibrations and resonance.

The servo circuit is equipped with S Servo III.
The SS Servo III, noise components that cause adverse effects are removed through a low-pass filter, and the influence on the audio circuit is reduced by sending a smooth servo current to the servo circuit. Moreover, unnecessary vibration of the optical system mechanism is also suppressed.

In order to eliminate the influence of sound pressure radiated from speakers, a damper made of a special rubber material is installed in the opening of the front panel where the disk tray is stored to improve airtightness when the tray is stored, thereby eliminating the influence of air vibration entering from the front.

The chassis structure uses the FB chassis, which follows the trend of the separate CD player R1. In addition to selecting members with sufficient thickness and strength, the entire chassis is firmly joined by the frame surrounding the outer circumference and the beams before and after passing the front and rear to ensure high strength.
In addition, ceramic insulators are used for the legs to improve stability.

It is equipped with a custom edit function that combines three functions : time edit, program edit, and time fade.
With Time Edit, you enter the time for one side of the tape and press the Edit button to program the music to be played in order from the first song. When you encounter a time-over song, the program automatically selects the longest song within the time range. Press the Edit button once to continue the program for the A side, and press the Edit button again to continue the program for the B side. The pause is automatically inserted between the A side and the B side.
In program edit, you program the songs you want to put on the A side of the tape in the order you like, then press the pause button and continue to program the B side.
With the Time Fade function, if you set the time beforehand, the FOMA terminal automatically fades out approximately five seconds before the time and enters a pause state.

The manual fader function allows manual operation to fade in / out.
With this function, the fade operation takes approximately 5 seconds from where the button is pressed.

It includes custom file functionality with three functions : disk memory, custom index, and program bank.
With Disk Memo, when you insert a disc, a message you enter appears on the display, followed by the number of songs and the total duration of performance. You can make a note of up to 10 characters per disc. You can use 46 letters, numbers, and special symbols.
The custom index allows you to set an index of up to 10 points at any location on a single disk, even if no index information is recorded on the disk itself. The index set includes a rehearsal function that allows fine tuning in steps of approximately ± 0.15 seconds.
In the Program Bank, you can directly record a program set with the Program Performance function that can play up to 20 songs continuously. You can call up the program with the File Recall button, or you can directly bank the contents of a program set with Custom Edit.

It is equipped with a file recall function that allows you to check what files have been stored so far without having to insert a disk.
This allows you to check without having to insert a disk, and also to erase the file contents on the spot.

Equipped with a multi-mode timer function, you can start from your favorite music, shuffle play and repeat.
By combining the custom index function, it is also possible to play the alarm clock with any phrase.

There are two types of analog output terminals, fixed and variable. Gold-plated terminals are used.

The headphone port is equipped with a headphone port with a lineout linked volume that flashes when the remote control is operated.

It is equipped with two digital outputs which are coaxial with the optical system.
The digital output can be switched on / off, and the coaxial digital output has a latch for time axis compensation just before the output, making it a latched digital output in which minute jitter components are eliminated more strictly.

Equipped with 6 mode repeat function of 1 song / whole song / part (remote control only) / program / shuffle / custom index, and auto space function.

Equipped with a display on / off function.

Equipped with 2-speed Music Search that enables fast forward / fast backward while listening to music.
Slow mode can only be operated from the remote control.

Comes with a 20-key wireless remote control with volume control.

Source: audio-database.com