Mitsubishi DP-103 CD-player Review

The DP-103 is a low-profile, front-loading machine with a horizontal drawer that glides open silently to receive the disc at the touch of the open/close bar and closes just as silently with another touch of the same control. When the drawer closes, the disc turns briefly and then stops, after which the digital display at the upper right of the front panel shows the number of distinct tracks on the disc and their total playing time in minutes and seconds. To the left of this display, a disk set indicator light shows that the disc has been loaded and is ready for playing. Between the open/close bar at the top center of the panel and the power switch at the bottom are three flat plate switches marked pause, play, and stop.

Normally, touching play begins the record from Track 1, and the time indicator shows the playing time in the current track. The disc is played to its end, after which the player shuts down. The pause and stop controls have the same functions as similar controls on tape decks and other CD players.

Below the digital display are two large, flat plates that are pivoted at their centers. A touch on the appropriate end of the upper one (skip) either advances the laser pickup to the beginning of the next track or slews it back to the beginning of the current track. Repeated operations of this control can cue the pickup to the start of any track on the disc, with the display showing the number of the track about to be heard. Below the skip control is a FF/FR (fast forward/fast reverse) pushplate. Pressing one end of it causes scanning to advance in the corresponding direction, slowly for the first 3 seconds, then at a very fast speed. The program can be heard during the fast scan at its normal pitch but greatly accelerated in tempo.

Next to the scan controls is a repeat button; pressing it causes the entire disc to be repeated indefinitely until the button is pressed a second time (it is not possible to set the machine to repeat only a single track). An indicator light next to the digital display shows that the repeat function has been engaged. Below the repeat button is a headphone jack, and below that there is a horizontal-slider headphone level control. The rear apron of the DP-103 contains the two audio-output jacks. The player measures 13-3/4 x 4 x 12-5/8 inches and weighs about 14-1/2 pounds.

Laboratory Measurements

The output voltage from a 0-dB (maximum level) 1,000-Hz recorded signal was 1.95 volts (the nominal rating is 2 volts). The maximum headphone output was 5.6 volts into a 600-ohm load and 0.58 volt into 8 ohms (the player is rated to deliver 20 milliwatts per channel to 8-ohm headphones). We listened through 600-ohm phones and found the volume more than adequate.

The DP-103’s frequency response was flat within +0.5, —0 dB from 20 to 20,000 Hz, with a slight rise occurring above 5,000 Hz. The stereo channel separation was 114 dB at 1,000 Hz and 95 to 96 dB at 20,000 Hz. The output noise level during playback of the silent “infinity zero” test-record track was —96 dB unweighted and —103 dB with A-weighting (both referred to a 0-dB signal level). The total harmonic distortion at 1,000 Hz was 0.003 per cent at 0 and — 20 dB (the lowest level at which we could measure it), falling to about 0.0015 per cent between those limits. The inter-modulation distortion was 0.006 per cent at 0 dB and 0.009 per cent at —20 dB. We also measured the phase difference between the left and right channels, playing mono test signals between 100 and 20,000 Hz. The phase angle below 1,000 Hz was under 5 degrees, increasing to 30 degrees at 7,000 Hz, 60 degrees at 15,000 Hz, and 90 degrees at 20,000 Hz. These measurements indicate that the DP-103 utilizes a single digital-to-analog converter circuit whose output is rapidly switched (multiplexed) between the two output channels. There are no apparent audible effects from this.

The effectiveness of the error-correcting system of the DP-103 was tested with the calibrated “defects” on the Philips TS4 test record. Any CD player should be able to track data interruptions of up to 400 micrometers on the information-carrying signal surface of the disc or 300 micrometers of an outer-surface blemish, and it should also be able to cope with the simulated fingerprint. The DP-103 was able to play the 700-micrometer signal-surface defect and the 600-micrometer outer-surface defect; this is very good performance (more extended interruptions cause a “stuttering” or hang-up of the laser tracking system when it fails to follow the spiral pattern of pits on the record). The simulated fingerprint had no effect on the reproduction.

Related to defect-tracking ability is the ability of the player to withstand a physical shock that might cause the pickup to “lose” the recorded pattern. The DP-103 was fairly sensitive to impact blows on its top and front but almost totally resistant to side blows. We would grade it C and A, respectively, in those directions. The pickup servo was able to cue up the second of two tracks on the Philips TS4 sampler record that have no silent gap between them without losing even part of a syllable of the vocal portion that begins the second track. Not every player can pass this unusually demanding test.

Comment

The Mitsubishi DP-103 was exceptionally easy to use as well as being totally silent and bug-free in its operation. In general, skipping from one track to another took about 1 or 2 seconds, and advancing from Track 1 to Track 15 of one of our records required only about 6 seconds. The FF/FR function was very convenient because of the simultaneous audible program output and digital time display. Brief touches on these controls allowed accurate cueing to a particular moment within a track, and sustained pressure caused the laser to fairly fly through the contents of the disc.

We did not mind the lack of programming facilities in this machine, which more than compensated for their absence by placing no upper limit on the number of tracks that could easily be accessed. It was as easy (and nearly as fast) to get to Track 39 of one of our test records as to Track 1, a feature that we greatly appreciated during our tests.

The evolutionary trends in CD-player development were predictable given the extraordinary flexibility built into many of the first-generation products. Now, more than ever, the consumer is being given a choice between size/price and operating features, which is all to the good. It is also reassuring to find that the actual playing performance of this second-generation player is even better than that of its predecessors. It is worth repeating that all properly operating CD players sound essentially alike (the differences between them are so minor as to be negligible). But there are some real differences in how well they work under less than ideal conditions (particularly when playing dirty or damaged discs) and in their ease of operation. In both these respects the Mitsubishi DP-103 is an excellent performer, and its very reasonable price only makes it more attractive.

Read all

Mitsubishi reviews

Read all