About all you can say about an old CD player is that it is working, today. They all pack in eventually. That may or may not be before you do but old CD players are a gamble. Cheap ones make sense but I wouldn't be spending a lot of money on a CD player unless I was very confident I could get it fixed at a reasonable cost if and when it breaks.
CD player upgrade?
- Thread starter Darren L
- Start date
About all you can say about an old CD player is that it is working, today. They all pack in eventually. That may or may not be before you do but old CD players are a gamble. Cheap ones make sense but I wouldn't be spending a lot of money on a CD player unless I was very confident I could get it fixed at a reasonable cost if and when it breaks.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Some people can DIY it, others, no chance. There’s differing levels of involvement when changing lasers too, some are straight forward, others require a number of adjustments and the use of a scope. The CDI should be straight forward if you have genuine/good quality parts. Sony based machines tend to be a pretty safe bet, plenty of parts availability for the majority of them, and cheap too, and very straight forward to replace (this is a generalisation as not true of all Sony based machines).Or fix it yourself
Main issue is lasers - I have a couple of spares in my cellar for when my CDIs current units wear out.
Yeah, that's true of anything of course but not everyone can. I've had mixed results with fixing CD players myself. These days I'd rather simply have one that works.
Dowser
Learning to bodge again..
Mostly dictated by age of machine - early Sony‘s were a bit of a nightmare, requiring a full setup When the laser was changed (I hate the CDP-101 for exactly this reason
) But all manufacturers quickly improved QC such that adjustment wasn‘t necessary on laser replacement. My CDIs use CDM9-Pro mechs - these are pretty much unobtanium nowadays. But CDM 9/44 lasers are easily transferable, and my spares are Kodak CD-Photo Players (on the basis this legacy tech was rarely used as a CD player very often, so lasers should be low mileage...plus, they’re cheap 2nd hand ).Just to note: CDM9/65 (or 64?) lasers do not work in CDM9-Pro.
Most CDP faults nowadays are mechanical (laser or mech related), closely followed by PSU rail issues normally caused by failing electrolytics. All pretty easy to maintain to be honest, as long as you have a solution for when the laser does finally crap itself.
I very nearly bought a Sony CDP-X303ES (1 step down from their TotL 707 & 779 players) yesterday. I stopped bidding at CHF 80.- because when I asked the owner whether it ran without problem, his answer was that it read Discs and he hadn‘t tried any further. The KSS-272A laser units always read discs, but 99% nowadays will also skip on 2nd half of disc. After having to buy 3 donors before finding a decent 272a 10 years ago to fix a 707 I will not make the same mistake again
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Pretty much mirrors my experience... gotta love machines with a KSS213, parts are 10 a penny and readily available.Mostly dictated by age of machine - early Sony‘s were a bit of a nightmare, requiring a full setup When the laser was changed (I hate the CDP-101 for exactly this reason
Just to note: CDM9/65 (or 64?) lasers do not work in CDM9-Pro.
Most CDP faults nowadays are mechanical (laser or mech related), closely followed by PSU rail issues normally caused by failing electrolytics. All pretty easy to maintain to be honest, as long as you have a solution for when the laser does finally crap itself.
I very nearly bought a Sony CDP-X303ES (1 step down from their TotL 707 & 779 players) yesterday. I stopped bidding at CHF 80.- because when I asked the owner whether it ran without problem, his answer was that it read Discs and he hadn‘t tried any further. The KSS-272A laser units always read discs, but 99% nowadays will also skip on 2nd half of disc. After having to buy 3 donors before finding a decent 272a 10 years ago to fix a 707 I will not make the same mistake again
against which Esoteric player have you compared Electrocompaniet ?
backwell
pfm Member
Last year I decided to give the CDs a revival and had to purchase a CD player. My choice after a little research was the Audiolab 6000CDT, I have been very impressed, of course you would need a DAC, but by all accounts the little Audiolab wouldn’t hold back the performance of even a very high end converter.
Minio
Kind of Sort of Not really...
It is a bit of a gamble but at the £60 some people are quoting on here for an around 30 year old 965bx model that seems to keep on playing fine, it sounds like a good punt.
Mind you, I paid around a ton for mine a couple of years ago. No complaints so far.
Darren L
Egalitarian
They're a great little CD player I had one years ago, I'm pretty much set on saving for an Isis though.
Just been having a browse through Audio Emotion's used equipment and they have a used Rega Isis new in.
Darren L
Egalitarian
Yeah, I know, little out of my price range at present.
It is the solid state version from what I can see, I would save up for the valve version for the full magic version...
Darren L
Egalitarian
Have you listened to both players? If so how did you find they differ?
Apologies, can't remember the model, dout it was the one you mention though, it would have been around the same price bracket as the EMC1UP about 3.6K
Ma
I haven't had the privilege but I have had many discussions with owners of both, the solid state is good but the valve player is very special.
There are numerous threads on the topic but the valve based unit is preferred in most systems, if only I had 7k to get a demo of both!!
There are numerous threads on the topic but the valve based unit is preferred in most systems, if only I had 7k to get a demo of both!!