3rd Times A Charm Finally a Working Yamaha CDX-510 CD Player

November 29, 2019

#341

Gentle reader,

Longtime readers are well aware of the music systems around our house.

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This article focuses on the Yamaha stack  of components sitting mere inches from me right now. 

For those who are new, Thank you for being here! 

I have had countless components here in our home "office". I will not bore you with the many iterations and locations and of said components in the room.

I spend far more time sitting here or doing other things in this room than I do in the listening room. So, it is important to me to have the best sound I can afford on my fixed income.

This photo is from January. As you can see, the only Yamaha component is a RX-496 stereo receiver. 

A Fisher cassette deck, one of the few black ones I have seen with VU meters and an OPPO universal player. Atop the stack is an Insignia HD Radio which I was using for a tuner.

I wanted a better tuner than the RX-496 possessed and while the HD Radio was fine, it was kind of hinky, the way I used it as a tuner via the headphones output.

I am not sure why I chose this AX-500U integrated amplifier, but I did. It has odd stains from some liquid on it, but it works great and sounds wonderful. And the price was right.

The next thing I sought was the matching tuner. They were priced very high, but as often happens to me, I finally found one at a great price and it is bar none, the BEST tuner I've ever had. Model number is TX-500U.

Naturally, I also sought the matching Cassette deck and again, found one at a great price. It has three motors and thus no belts to worry about. For a two-head deck, it has superb sound. Model number is KX-500U.

To quote Rango, "This is where it gets...complicated." Lest you have never seen the film of the same name, I highly recommend it.

Since I already had three 500U components, next on the want list was the CD player.

I bought one, a CDX-500U for $14.99. What was once a number of cardboard boxes, which were now an odd, UN-box-like shape all taped together arrived on out front porch.

I did not photograph it. Inside were more pieces of cardboard, but no form of padding whatsoever. The player rattled, so I took the cover off and found a CD loose inside it. Oh, and no power cord. Fortunately, my thrift-store test kit has one.

The player turned on, it read the disc, but would not play. So, I returned it, complaining about her poor packing of it, leaving a CD in it and lack of power cord.

There was another one on eBay for $99.99. I contacted the seller, told him what happened. He promised to "pad" it. 

It arrived, in a box EXACTLY the same size as the player. When the FedEx man handed it to me, it rattled!

Once I opened the box, the "padding" was one tissue thin piece of soft Styrofoam on top of the player.  

Above, you can see the CD drawer is cockeyed. 

Once I got the cover off, this is what I found, above and below. The transport drawer is not where it is supposed to be and broken.

Once again, I requested a return, writing a strongly worded complaint and included these three photos.

He has accepted my return and I await the refund. TWO 1987 Yamaha CDX-500U players had not survived transit and so I looked at other ones. 

I have an ORION BLUE BOOK of AUDIO which has been invaluable in my hobby.

There was a CDX-810U which was one year newer on eBay, but the seller was concerned that the drawer would not always open. So I passed. Too bad, that one retailed for $550 back in 1988 and must have been a good one.

Then I saw a CDX-510U which is also from 1988 and has more features. It was $40 and only $14 and change for shipping.

I once again contacted the seller, and he assured me that he always packs well.

Jerry, our SUPER mail carrier arrived today and since I knew he had the package on his truck, I went out to meet him.

Nice big box, a very good sign. Inside this is what I found. Excellent! 

This blue cocoon of big bubble wrap which was also covered in that stretch plastic wrap.

I rolled it all back onto itself and found the player was also plastic wrapped. The correct (polarized) cord was taped to the back of the unit.

Freed from bondage at last! And sure enough, it plays!

This is the Yama-stack. I do not like to stack too high as I worry about the sturdiness of sheet steel cases. 

Since the CD player is much deeper than the rest, it had to go on the bottom.

I put special isolation feet on the Tuner to raise it up some so the amplifier could breathe. 

Those are manuals for each unit beneath the CD player. 

Now, the stack is complete and everything is lit up. At first, I plugged the CD player's cord into a switched outlet on the amp. Then realized that since it has a headphone jack with volume control, I moved it to an unswitched outlet. That way I can listen to it with the amp off if my wife is home. Which is what I am doing right now.

There is also a 500U equalizer, but I stopped using them years ago. Here is an image I found just now of one, model number is EQ-500U. 

I do not know who's photo it is, it just stated Youtube.

The few of them that do show up on eBay, along with other 500U components are very pricey.

There is also a 500U turntable, but there is no place to put one in here. So that is out. 

I am just tickled to finally get a working CD player. I used the OPPO for all discs, but it will now be reserved for HDCD, SACD and DVD-Audio discs.

Man this thing sounds terrific! 

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog. It is your kind words and comments here or via Facebook that keep me writing.

Scott
November 29, 2019
#341