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Upgrades for an old Denon DCD-590?

B

berty bass

pfm Member
I've had this CDP since new but it has spent several years in the loft, having been ousted first by a Cambridge something-or-other and now, for the last 7 or 8 years by Rega Apollo-R. I hawked it down the other day and plugged it in. It lights up and the remote still works! However, it jumped all over the place on the first CD I put on (played faultlessly by the Apollo). I've never done any diy stuff myself but I'm tempted to use it as a bit of a test bed to see if it can be brought up to higher level of performance. Can anyone suggest how to sort the skipping out and then maybe some internal upgrades that a newbie/numpty like me might be able to take on? I have zero electronics knowledge but I'm reasonably fastidious and I own a soldering iron. What could possible go wrong?
 
Skipping may be something as easy as cleaning and re lubricating the guide rails that the laser sled runs on. The grease can harden over time. I have a 20 year old Cambridge Audio CD5 which skips on every disc at exactly the same point. No sound for a second or so then suddenly it reappears.

I really hope it is as simple as that otherwise you are in to the realms of diy pain. Some here may help you diagnose if it is not the sled rails.

Stu
 
mega lord said:
Skipping may be something as easy as cleaning and re lubricating the guide rails that the laser sled runs on. The grease can harden over time. I have a 20 year old Cambridge Audio CD5 which skips on every disc at exactly the same point. No sound for a second or so then suddenly it reappears.

I really hope it is as simple as that otherwise you are in to the realms of diy pain. Some here may help you diagnose if it is not the sled rails.

Stu
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply - I'll open the case over the weekend and have a rummage.
 
The two most likely reasons for the player skipping are:

1) Dried up hardened grease on the sled rails/gears as Stu suggests above
or
2) Dirty laser optics.

1) Clean off the old grease carefully and re-lubricate with a thin plastic safe synthetic grease.
2) Gently clean the lens surface with a cotton bud moistened with window cleaning fluid (moist not soaking wet) then polish to streak free shine with a fresh dry one. If you want to go a step further carefully remove the black plastic cover over the lens then gently lift the lens up just enough to allow access the lens below and clean that too.

While you're in there, apply a single drop of light oil (e.g. sewing machine oil) to the upper bearing of the turntable motor.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Strange, I have just done all of those things to my Denon DCD-1520 which I brought down from the attic last month after 10 years because I was bored.
It had a fault on the loading tray (wouldn't close completely) and skipped occasionally but not too frequently.
So opened it up and replaced belts on tray mechanism after thoroughly cleaning the cogs and drive wheels. next cleaned off all the grease from the slides and regreased them lightly. Finally I cleaned the lens exacly as Mike P suggested and it is now working perfectly and no skipping. To be honest I had forgotten what a good player it is :)
 
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