For sure, micro stereo systems are a "dime a dozen" but this unit is something quite special and difficult to find (especially in full working order!)
I am offering a very nice "tight" micro system from Sony, with the bonus facility of record/playback using Minidiscs.
Yes, this micro system can be used as a standard tiny stereo system but it really shines if you have some gig/demo tapes or minidisc's that you have been dying to hear once again.
This is a nice "all in one" unit, compact and it sounds great as well!
Now MD's won't mean a lot to many people but in the world of music, these were widely used (for a time) as an alternative to DAT in portable recordings. MD allowed for great high quality digital audio recordings, fast re-recordings, edits and text naming of each track - wonderful little things (and they are small, take a look at the size comparison photograph I have included)
I and a lot of other artists and sound engineers have oodles of these MD's stashed away often with wonderful demos and live gig recordings. I usually use a nice Sony or Marantz pro MD recorder (for playback these days) but this Sony system is a very useful "multi-media" audio playback system, in fact the only media it cannot handle is vinyl records. There is a "spare" input but it is at line level and not suitable for a turntable.
I have taken a LOT of photographs, showing many aspects of this system INCLUDING every single function ON and operating. There are addtional "system wide" functions such as the Bass/Treble etc but I think most people will find these photographs to be enough.
I have a LOT of information about this system (not manufacturers blurb!) so please read on ...
SONY Compact Micro Stereo System
Model: CMT-CP33
Australian release
240V standard AC plug
Cassette tape (Play & Record)
Minidisc (Play & Record)
CD - Player
Tuner - AM/FM
Remote control (Original #RM-SCP33)
User Manual (88 pages so I will only provide this in .pdf format - too many pages for me to print!)
This user manual is VITAL. There are so many features packed into this little bundle that life is made far easier when you read the manual, especially when using the MD facilites but there are many other features hidden away as well.
2x SONY SS-CCP33 original speakers (2 way)
Overall system condition: excellent - very nice cosmetically and fully functioning
More detailed information about each component is below...
There is a lot to tell about this sweet little bundle so I will deal with each component (in detail)
CASSETTE TAPE:
Plays and Records
Dolby B capable
Playback 3 tape types: I (standard), II (CrO2) & IV (Metal)
Record can handle types: I & II
Front panel manual or auto-reverse function (no need to flip the tapes to hear material "on the other side")
Curious thing, I noticed that the very cool (but difficult to read in daylight) display does not seem to have facilities to show tape travel. There is also no mention in the manual about this function, which I would have thought was pretty standard.
CONDITION:
I "think" the transport may have a problem. To be frank, I never used this tape cassette player as I had much better Tascam gear for those tapes.
It plays my test cassettes fine, no warbling or strange noises.
Front display shows the tape is moving (arrows move across the display screen while in playback or record)
HOWEVER if I want to Fast Forward or Reverse, it makes the appropriate noises, the tape begins moving and then it goes into shutdown after around one second.
So moving around within a tape is a bit tiresome as I could only move in small segments at a time.
I suspect we have a belt issue but I am not prepared to start restoring the tape transport, particularly when the MD side of things was always of far more interest to me.
If you have the skills, patience, time etc then this should not be a difficult fix - belts are readily available from the likes of Wagner's here in Sydney.
MINIDISC:
Plays and Records
It is curious that SONY of all people provide consumers with equipment that can easily transfer music from multi-sources to a Minidisc writer/playback system - they very jealously defend copyright rights so go figure ...
So here we have what I call the HEART of the system. The MD player of course plays normal 74 minutes MD and also has full record functions, the source material can be from the CD player, the tape cassette system, the tuner (yes you can record "off air" onto MD and you can use the rear input RCA sockets for recording material as well, these are marked as VIDEO INPUT VIDEO OUTPUT.
The manual gives clear and comprehensive instructions on how to record to MD using the choice of source material.
The MD system has the other functions you would expect such as track editing and naming of tracks (like CD TEXT) - the front panel is quite sparse and all these special functions are controlled from the remote - DO NOT LOSE THE REMOTE!
CONDITION:
A beauty here! Plays and Records without any issues. I truly would imagine most users would only want to playback their precious existing MD material, perhaps for transfer to other media such as a CD-r via an external CD-r writer (Tascam or Marantz Pro equipment would be good for this)
I have just TWO MD discs here, both are going to stay here! They contain precious test tones and some studio/gig rehearsal material that I will never give away - sorry. So, while I have no problems firing up one of my own MD's, you don't get to keep it! If you wish to bring your own for testing, no problems at all.
COMPACT DISC:
Playback only, not a recordable drive
All the standard CD transport functions are on the front panel and the remote control.
A nice additional feature is that you can "label" up to 50 CD's so that when you put them into the system, it will recognise the CD inserted and display whatever you saved it as.
This CD player is CD-TEXT compatible - meaning if you insert a CD with CD-TEXT encoding, it will display messages on the display for you.
CONDITION:
Absolutely faultless. Checked the CD player with normal CD's, non-Red Book CD's (80 minutes recording time, these are not audio Red Book standard CD's an example is a CD I have called 24 Hour Party People, a great punk compilation. It will not play on some CD players because the disc was not pressed "quite right" - this CD player loved it and played the CD without any hitches), CD-r (commonly used for demo's and advance releases) and even a couple of test CD's which have bad scratching - just to see how it handled a "rough disc" - no issues at all.
TUNER:
AM & FM (Standard frequency ranges in these bands)
Stereo indicator
20 Preset station memories are available (user programmed AND you can label each preset to show whatever you want, not just a frequency)
Manual search or Auto search
Barely any controls on the front panel for the tuner, most control is by using the remote control ONLY.
FM antenna input (Coaxial socket) - a long wire lead (Original with the plug) is supplied
FM antenna input - 2x spring clips for a closed loop antenna (NOT SUPPLIED) but for casual listening just a length of long wire will usually be enough
CONDITION:
Fully functioning. I checked both bands and set up some preset stations, labelled them etc ... everything is working as it should.
SYSTEM CONTROL:
The amplifier is capable of 25W + 25W RMS output - plenty loud enough for small rooms, the office, etc
Front panel or remote control looks after the usual functions such as Volume, Bass, Treble etc
The display deserves a special mention!
It isn't one I've seen before. The display is situated in the tape cassette door. It looks to be side lit from each side and has an orange glow with black characters - the display is SEE THROUGH. Meaning when the tape cassette is playing, you can see the cassette moving through the display.
It is not a very bright display and the contrast isn't great either - it works fine in low light levels but once the ambient light gets a bit higher, it becomes quite difficult to read the display.
Its a bit like those sci-fi displays you see in some futuristic films - pretty unusual.
The system incorporates a timing system, not only for the current time but you can set up recording of audio sources to MD at pre-determined times e.g Radio Station program to MD
Finally there is the mysterious button labelled DSG, which SONY call the Dynamic Sound Generator. No, it does not make a sound but it can be thought of as a "Loudness" button - to boost the low end frequencies. This sometimes comes in handy, keeping in mind these loudspeakers are not big and you really can't expect them to perform well at low frequencies - they just cannot move enough air!
The system "box" is quite heavy, here are the details:
Dimensions: 330mm Deep x 260mm Height x 200mm Wide
Weight: 7kg
LOUDSPEAKERS:
SONY 2 way 2x (stereo)
Blonde veneer on 5x sides, plain particle board (black) to the rear.
Each has a removeable front grille (plastic)
Each cabinet uses these speakers:
SONY 1-529-727-11 E 022 MID
4.5" diameter paper cone
Spade terminals
Nice rubberised surround, very large magnet - this mid range speaker adds substantially to the cabinet weight.
SONY 1-529-476-11 00707 TWEETER
1" diameter
Dome tweeter - spade terminals
Cabinet has no internal baffles
Rear ported
6 Ohm impedance
Fixed lead exits the rear of the case, 170mm length and terminated as bare wires
Dimensions: 250mm deep x 260mm high x 153mm wide (each cabinet)
Weight: 2.7Kg (each cabinet)
CONDITION:
Like new!
Blonde veneer to 5 sides (not the rear) and it has NO scratches or marks at all. Its a nice finish too - SONY wanted to make sure this looked classy.
The front grilles are in very good condition, clean and without holes.
Speaker cones and surrounds are completely undamaged
OVERALL VERDICT:
I only used this system casually to listen in the quiet of the evening to some demo recordings and maybe some radio. In the last few days I have really given it a working over and tried out ALL facilities and it did not miss a beat - this is quality SONY gear and usually very reliable. MD is a SONY technology so I guess they wanted to make sure their own product worked properly! SONY of course are very well known in professional audio and broadcast industries, they make great designs and their equipment is usually (but not always) well made.
The one possible exception to these glowing tributes is that cassette tape transport - cassette tape transports ALWAYS give issues after a number of years, particulary if any rubber is involved!
The system audio quality is good - not exceptional but very listenable. I always noticed that the MD player sounded the best of all, even though the CD player also runs at a sampling rate of 44.1Khz, the audio from the MD is "nicer" to listen to - "fuller" and "richer" or perhaps it was the wonderful band demo's I was listening to?
Wind up the volume and the system has no issues handling it - the audio doesn't collapse under the stress.
This is a great little (meaning tiny) stereo sound system with heaps and heaps of hidden facilities - SONY really wanted to pack in lots of features into this beauty but it's real shining star is that MD capability - wonderful (for me anyway)
