HISTORY:
In our audio post production days we had a number of studios used for different purposes and something like a "Green Room" where the client could sit back and listen to either our music, their music or even their finished project.
While our studios used professional gear such as the STUDER D730, Tascam's and other CD players but for "ordinary everyday use" we had a number of consumer grade players, this PIONEER was one of them.
I hear you, I hear you ... not another CD player!
Well, yes and no.
Sure this player is NOT exceptional from an audio standpoint (it is very listenable but not audiophile quality, for example right now I am playing some great jazz from Miles Davis and when he is playing furiously, the audio sounds quite 'harsh" or perhaps its just my ears, which are pretty 'stuffed' these days anyway) BUT it is the features that Pioneer built into this player that make it stand out from the crowd!
This is a dual-CD player, but not one of those gigantic beasts with the big rotating carousel - those beasts are huge, clunky and often very heavy.
This CD player accepts TWO CD's, it has TWO independent CD trays (but one laser head) and because of this you can do nifty things like
Insert a CD into tray 1 - start the CD playing
There are two separate EJECT buttons, one for each tray
Insert a CD into tray 2 - this DOES NOT affect CD 1 playing at all - it just keeps on playing
Once the CD in tray 1 has finished doing it's thing, tray 2 comes into play and the audio playback is almost without a break between the two CD's - you do not need to push PLAY to start up Tray 2.
In fact you can push a front panel button (Option) so that when one CD is finished and the next starts playing, the finished CD tray can pop out automatically so you can load up the next CD to play after the current CD is finished.
It is all pretty "neat" and works without a hiccup (quiet operation and the player runs very quietly)
All other features of this player are pretty much what you would expect .... no surprises at all
So, this is a nice dual CD player with features that are unique and certainly at the time of production, made this player "different" to all the others ...
NOTE: I go to great lengths to explain any and all known issues with complete equipment, this dual CD tray player is no exception. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the entire description (particularly the sub-section TESTING) is read and understood.
There are NO RETURNS .... but I try my utmost to provide a clear and truthful description
PIONEER - CD Player
Circa early 1990's
Made In Japan
Model: PD-Z72T
DUAL CD Player (two trays)
Australian model (not International voltage switchable) and fitted with a standard 2 pin double insulated plug
Plenty of technical specifications available online, nothing really to shout home about but it's fine for those with "domestic ears"
The very nice touch is the dual tray arrangement - see above for some of the details and take a look at the video I grabbed online (below)
DIMENSIONS:
360mm Deep x 320mm Wide x 80mm Height
Weight: 3.5Kg
TESTING:
I am a "techie" and like to look around inside, see how gear was designed, what they used etc .... so I opened up the case (easy, just 3 rear access screws)
Nice layout, not too cluttered and clean. If you open up the unit like I have, be VERY WARY of the bare 240V AC input wires near the rear of the CD mechanism (Ouch!)
All fine so I popped the case back on and set about testing the player - it has been in my storage units (boxed) since around 2005 (!) so I thought, this should be interesting ....
Powers up fine, no smoke or funny smells .... all good so far
Pushed each EJECT button and each tray slides out nice and easy like - smooth as silk (I was pleasantly surprised)
Loaded up the trays, one by one and looked at the display screen. The screens shows the CD TOC very fast (laser had no problems reading either CD) so I pushed PLAY and away she went, nice analog audio from the rear RCA sockets.
By nice analog sound I mean, NO skipping or the laser losing it's way (obvious when the display skips all over the place trying to find out where it is playing) I played a variety of CD media, some are special in that they "tax" the player laser reading (generating high BLER rates) and I DID notice that if the media is not nice and clean, yes the laser can have some trouble locating where it is and subsequently you get weird playback results.
THIS ONLY APPLIES TO DAMAGED MEDIA - NICE CLEAN MEDIA PLAYS FINE
MEDIA CLEANING: One of my pet bugbears, cleaning CD's. Never ever clean the CD media surface in a circular motion and always wipe with a soft cloth from the centre outwards in a straight line. Why? Because the "datastream" is in a spiral pattern on the CD, if you damage the CD in a spiral pattern then substantial amounts of data will be lost but if you damage a CD when it has been cleaned from the centre outwards, the damaged area is very short and 'across' the spiral not along with it. Most CD players can and do correct for errors when reading media but if the damage is substantial, such as with spiral damage, most likely the player will throw up it's little laser "hands" and say too hard, I'm going to take a rest now!
Additional notes regarding playback
I have been using this CD player for over 8 days now, all day and all night (to check other CD's that I am offering on this website) and I noticed a little "quirk" with this player.
When the CD player is turned ON from "cold", this is when it has the most difficulty reading the data off the media.
HOWEVER after a "warm up" (which just means it has been turned ON and is sitting idle, waiting to swallow up a CD and play it) this media issue disappears, even damaged media play fine after this warming up period (which seems to be around 15 minutes)
I have been in the servicing game for too many years that I care to remember and I have a "hunch" that we are not looking at a laser issue but instead it is more likely to be an electrolytic capacitor. Over 30 years, these are likely culprits for failure and in this case it seems like a capacitor is taking a while to "form" when voltage appears across it. Once "formed", everything is honky dory.
I am not about to start getting back into servicing so the new owner should keep this in mind - changing of the caps is not a difficult task but of course, which one? That is where the new owner's technical skills will come into play.
By the way, the delicate laser lens top section has had a good clean, no change in the situation though.
Back to more of the testing ...
I then stepped across tracks, checking the FF/RW and SKIP TRACK until I got to the last track on one CD and waited to see what would happen when the play counter got to the end of the CD.
Music finished, CD 1 stopped spinning and up comes CD 2 - magic! Now CD 2 is playing. I repeated this again but with the AUTO EJECT button activated and the finished CD did indeed open up the tray and 'asked me to feed it another CD' (I have a special relationship with CD players, they talk to me hmmmm...)
I checked the other controls such as the display of time etc, memory functions and all seemed to be fine.
Pushed the EJECT button on both trays, took out the CD's and turned the player off
COMMENTS:
Pioneer (in my opinion) has used a lightweight metal casing, it doesn't feel really sturdy - drop one of these and you might be in for a spot of bother. If you ever have the chance, try picking up a STUDER A720, now that's a nice solid machine!
Fortunately the case is straight and does not look to have been abused at all.
Display is one of those fluorescent Blue/Green types - readable although it would have been nice to wind up the intensity a bit. The photographs I have provided are taken in FULL DAYLIGHT, so in a nice dark, cosy loungeroom, the display would be easier to read.
I personally don't like the inside tray finger depressions very much, there are two and both near the front of the tray - this doesn't feel nice to pluck out the old CD and put in a new one. I much prefer side gripping of the CD when doing these things but perhaps it's just me!
Notice I didn't test this with a remote? Because I don't have it any longer! If you look around my website for the Z93 remote control, that remote talks to this CD player (that is the remote we used in the past) but another 'eager beaver' bought the remote by itself (a very happy chappy), so the player is at the moment manual operation only (unless you can find a remote somewhere - best of luck!)
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Nice, in fact very nice.
Always been inside in a clean environment in our old business premises and once I retired, it was boxed up and moved to the storage units where it has been for a long long time until now.
Barely any case marks at all (topside, sides, underneath and rear panels all clean)
Front panel is unmarked and all labelling is clear and easy to read
Of course all buttons are present and undamaged - all are working fine.
Display is fine to read when indoors, the normal operating location - a bit dim when it comes to bright ambient light such as outdoors though (who uses their CD player in the back garden though?)
Techie note: so often it happens that the tray drive belt (rubber) fails but fortunately this has not happened yet ... when I looked around inside I noticed how easy it is to access this drive belt, so changing it (when required) would be a snap.
Not much else to say about this dual CD player from Pioneer and now that I have finished playing a number of CD's on this unit, I have now wrapped it up VERY SAFELY in bubble-wrap, waiting to be shipped to it's new "forever home"
LAST NOTE (promise)
If you are not familiar with my website, I ship ALL items over A$75 order value FREE to anywhere within Australia - obviously this CD player qualifies so there are no hidden extra costs, this player will be shipping at no cost to the new owner.
VIDEO COMMENT:
This video is NOT my created content but that of another who was selling the same equipment.
The CD player I am offering is identical and the video provides a great demonstration of the player "in action"
