Pioneer PD-S703 CD-player
Despite of the traditional black taint, PD-S703 looks unusual. It is quite high device, the disc loader of which is placed in the middle of the faceplate. More precisely there is a display of blue glow in the middle, and unusually wide disc loader is under it.
Exactly this distinguishes PD-S703 from "non-Pioneers". The matter is that in all players of the price above 250$ Pioneer uses its own version of disc loader, named "Stable platter".
In traditional transporting mechanism the disc loading happens in nearly such way: a plastic tray, where you put a disk, drives out and then it drives back, where conical plug is lowered into the central hole; a disk "sits down" on it, lifts and then rotates with the help of electric drive. Reading of sound information happens, as you know, by optical system, which uses the infrared laser beam. The information is read from the centre to the edge, and angular velocity of disk rotation changes depending on laser beam position. The highest frequency of the disk rotation - 500 rpm - is near the centre. What does it mean? A disc rotates fast and this means that it vibrates. "Pioneer" thinks that such vibrations don't bring good and that's why CD lies on tower rotating disc while reading.
There are "System" button, "switch off" display button, "TIME" button (changes time information type, showed at display), and "REPEAT" button (you can make one audio or the whole disc sound endlessly by certain pressings) in the left part of the faceplate of PD-S703. To the right side of the display there are usual buttons of opening/closing of the loader, playback control buttons ("play", "pause", "stop") and search/switch tracks. Output selector and LED indication of operating output is in the right lower corner. The matter is that Pioneer PD-S703 has digital output (only optical TosLink). Yellow diode glows when digital output works, the red one when analogue is used. You can involve two outputs at the same time, but the quality of analogue sound may suffer. That's why, if you don't use the digital output of PD-S703, switch off it by selector on the faceplate without fail. By the way, it is not recommended to leave a digital cable in digital output connector, if you don't use it - this can make the quality of analogue sound worse.
Shutdown the display of PD-S703 happens in the following way: pressing "DISPLAY OFF" button a small inscription displays in red, and then the pressing "PLAY" button results in blanking the display at the beginning of playback. At all! I tell you, this is impressive. Short experiences with display shutdown didn't identify special impact of this function on the sound quality of the player.
There are two RCA (not gilt) for analogue signal, digital optical output jack TosLink and slot for 3,5 mm mini-jack, marked "CD-DECK SYNCHRO", on the back panel of the player. Have you already guessed for what it is? Yes, if you have a "Pioneer" cassette deck, equipped in appropriate way, you can synchronize recording start with CD playback starton tape, using enclosed cable. Power cord is unchangeable. Carefully exploring, you can find the serial number plate and the label "Made in Japan".
The quality of finishing and external assembly of Pioneer PD-S703 is beyond exception. The remote control looks traditionally and has simple commands for playback control, including missing ones on the faceplate (e.g. direct access to CD tracks by number). All in all there are 35 buttons on the console. Modes of programming the playback sequence, setup functions while recording on the tape, and playing the tracks in random order are available like in other players.In addition, it has peak search on CD ("PEAK SEARCH") and search by index ("INDEX"). You can turn on and off the player by the remote control.
