Pioneer PD-S505 Review

[jandl100]

I like the Pioneer stable platter CDPs ... although tbh, I don't get along with those Legato Link DACs they usually contain (too smooth and laid back for my over-excitable tastes!) - but as a CD Transport they can have astonishing bass slam and control (into the right DAC and other kit, of course!). They do the rest of the music well, too, with good rez and clarity. Yup, I likes them.

[Ali Tait]

I had a 505 that I used as a transport for a while. I thought it was pretty good, especially as I got it from Cash Converters for 19.99!

Ok it was a little tatty and no remote, but it worked perfectly and a Marantz remote I had worked with it.

[Chunky70]

I used to own a PD-S705. Had it from new in 1996.I used to think it sounded brilliant until i tried my philips bd player into my dac. It blew the pioneer totally away. Quite surprised about this considering how cheap and flimsy the philips mech actually is. Most bd players have pretty low jitter levels though.

[Fulci]

Hi! I just got a PD-S505 for £15 to use as a transport into the Bushmaster DAC, but I don't it's that good. Music from iTunes through Airport Express is so much better in every way that there is no comparison possible. The guitar in the intro to Van der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts praticaly disapears in the Pioneer as well as most bass, definition, separation...

I will get a Mark Grant Coax cable later this month and see if it improves, though I guess it shouldn't be my cable's fault.

Maybe I'll change the power chord and a few capacitors, specially the PSU and put some blu-tac inside.

Do you know which other mods I can do to it cheaply that are worth, or should I just try to find a better CD player like a Rega Apollo?

I do prefer the iTunes/AEX better, this is mostly for my wife...

[Yomanze]

Hi! I just got a PD-S505 for £15 to use as a transport into the Bushmaster DAC, but I don't it's that good. Music from iTunes through Airport Express is so much better in every way that there is no comparison possible. The guitar in the intro to Van der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts praticaly disapears in the Pioneer as well as most bass, definition, separation...

I will get a Mark Grant Coax cable later this month and see if it improves, though I guess it shouldn't be my cable's fault.

Maybe I'll change the power chord and a few capacitors, specially the PSU and put some blu-tac inside.

Do you know which other mods I can do to it cheaply that are worth, or should I just try to find a better CD player like a Rega Apollo?

I do prefer the iTunes/AEX better, this is mostly for my wife...

Yes I have since moved on from the PD-S505, and agree with your findings of the muddiness in the highs. However, I found no 'glare' that I get with most CD players and almost all DVD players. It read everything, sounded analogue & didn't annoy me. I bought a £250 Little Dot CD Transport and it was tighter with more detail and highs, but it sounded incredibly 'digital' as a result! Waste of money for me.

I wouldn't go with modifying the unit.

You could look for a Pioneer DV-505, DV-717 or DV-737 as these are a big step up & go for under £50 regularly.

[JimC]

Hi All,

I use a PD-73 as a Transport (same little circuit for the SPDIF out but not on a separate PCB) in to a Nakamichi mobile DAC (DAC-101) which uses TDA-1541's and I wouldn't swap this set-up for anything.

I was servicing all sorts of CD Players at the time I bought the Pioneer (fairly cheaply in a non-working state in the mid Nineties) and so was able to audition plenty of different makes. None sounded as good as the 73, even some higher end machines such as the PD-91 (a beautifull piece of engineering I must admit though) and so I did some measurements.
My conclusions (and I do not consider myself an expert by any means when it comes to having 'Golden Ears'!) were that the PD-73 (and to a lesser extent all Pioneers) had the 'Squarest' SPDIF output when looked at on an oscilloscope.

I found all Philips based players to have a lot of 'ringing' on the positive and negative going edges and this, to me, gave a very harsh sound, extremely detailed but tiring to listen to.
I found machines which utilised Sony based electronics (and I do realise that the early RF processing of Pioneers of that era used Sony CXA-1081 and CXA 1082!) had a SPDIF out that had 'rounded' edges and again, to me, this produced a very 'smooth' sound. Too smooth for me.

The Pioneer gave the best of both worlds and to me sounds superb. Now, it could of course be all in my imagination but I did get to a point where I could tell a player's chip-set by the sound the SPDIF gave through my Nak without seeing the unit in question.

As a previous poster said, I did not get on with the Legato Conversion but as a Transport I for one would always choose a Pioneer.

James.

[The Black Adder]

I always fancied a stable platter deck but after my PD-91, which was superb, I never returned to Pioneer.

Just for you Martin.


None legato, the original stable platter transport, dual dac... I could go on. Thing is I've been thinking of moving on to getting a bluray player and using that as a player (with external dac) simply because I don't play as many cd's these days... When I have time to sit and listen I stick some black stuff on.

I'm in limbo cos I can't find a decent none crazy priced bluray player to take the job on.

[walpurgis]

I have two PD-S505 Precisions and find them very sweet and lucid used as transports with my Theta DAC. Nearly on a par with my Meridian 507. I think the Pioneer represent great 'sound for pound' value as a used buy. I quite like the effect the Legato Link has on the presentation.

[AlfaGTV]

So what you are saying here, is that i am more or less obliged to retrive my old PD-S505 from my stash? I've never listened to it in a decent setup...

/Mike

[walpurgis]

Worth a try. The PD-S505 responds very well to a decent DAC.