Sony S9000ES manual Construction

Fig. 20: Conventional DVD players use a pivoting base unit (top), prone to vibration. The Sony DVP-S9000ES uses a rigidly fixed base unit (bottom), minimizing vibration and its consequent distortion.

Construction

DVD Technical Notes

Audiophile Parts

The same insistence on high-performance parts that marks the video section of the DVP-S9000ES can be found throughout the audio section, as befits a fully qualified member of Sony’s ES Series. The parts are selected after undergoing exhaustive testing. For example, the audio circuit board is a glass epoxy design that steadfastly resists deformation. The copper foil traces on the circuit board are twice the normal thickness. Principal parts are secured with through-hole connections. The digital circuit is intentionally compact with the shortest practical leads. High quality electrolytic capacitors are used wherever they can impact sound. Even the AC power line uses gold plating for the minimum in contact resistance. The result is remarkably pure, superbly clean sound.

Build Right

Vibration is the enemy of DVD players for two powerful reasons. First, vibration in the disc or optical pickup triggers unwanted operation in the tracking servos. This can radiate spurious noise throughout the chassis. And this radiation occurs in exactly the wrong place — near the sensitive low-level optical pickup preamplifier. To make matters worse, vibration can also cause subtle distortions in the audio circuitry. Vibration can have tiny “microphonic” effects on capacitor values and point-to-point wiring. While these distortions are not always apparent to the casual listener, Sony’s design program required performance without compromise. For all these reasons, the DVP-S9000ES takes advantage of Sony’s comprehensive anti-resonant design. It’s one more way the player reflects its dual heritage as a top Sony DVD machine and proud member of the ES Series.

Copper-Plated Frame and Beam Chassis

The first line of defense against vibration is Sony’s Frame and Beam (FB) chassis. In this design, the thick, high-strength chassis frame gains additional strength from a horizontal beam. The back panel and main parts use 1.6 mm thick sheet metal

Photo 6: Sony’s copper-plated Frame and Beam (FB) is not only strong. Parts of different

shapes and thicknesses combine to suppress resonance.

while the bottom plate is 2 mm thick. The chassis corners benefit from stiffening boards that add strength and diffuse the natural resonant frequencies. In this way, materials of different shapes and thicknesses combine to suppress vibration. In addition, copper plating on the back panel and bottom help reduce noise by decreasing the ground potential difference.

Off Center Insulator Feet

To prevent shelf-borne vibration from entering the chassis, Sony’s insulator feet locate the screw hole off center. Varying the radius from screw to perimeter tends to vary the resonant frequency within the foot — diffusing one potential path for vibration.

New Fixed Base Unit Mechanism

The DVP-S9000ES marks the debut of an all-new drive mechanism of unusual design. On a conventional DVD drive, the spindle, drive motor and optical pickup are mounted on a pivoting base unit. The pivot is necessary because the base unit needs to drop out of the way when the disc drawer is opening and closing. And it needs to swing back up into playing position once a disc has been loaded. Unfortunately, this pivoting mechanism is an open invitation to vibration and resonance.

Sony engineers

demanded more.

And they developed

the fixed base unit

mechanism. In the

new Sony design,

the spindle, motor

and optical pickup base unit is rigidly bolted to a sub- chassis, to reduce any possibility of

resonance. When you load a disc into the DVP-S9000ES, the disc not only moves laterally into the player, it also descends onto the spindle. Thanks to Sony’s new design, the disc is always read in a silent, extremely stable non-resonant environment. Vibration is minimized, along the servo activity vibration can cause. The sensitive RF preamplifier is protected from servo radiation.

Hermetic Shutter

When it carries the disc down to the fixed base unit, the loading tray no longer acts like a door to seal the front-panel loading slot. Sony engineers addressed this by creating a hermetic shutter. It forms an airtight seal to protect the disc and pickup from airborne vibration. Even when the speakers in your room are going full blast, the disc rotates in peace and quiet.

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