CD Player won't start

[GringoAudio]

Why do CD players get unreliable and stop reading CDs? Some CDs will read the first time and not others. Sometimes several tries will get a persnickety CD to read. It is a friend's Marantz CD player. He says it was a high end unit 10 years ago. He has cleaned the lasers with a kit several times. Thanks. I usually read and post in the FullRange and Chipamp sections.

[xaudiox]

i think its time to replace the laser.. thats what i did with my marantz cd63 when he cant read cd anymore.. HTH

[kevinkr]

After a certain number of hours of use the laser in the mechanism starts to wear out, eventually the optical output drops enough that the photo diodes do not reliably detect it.

Philips mechanisms (Hence Marantz) are notorious for this problem, many seem to have comparatively short service lives and good replacements can be difficult to find depending on the model of cd player mechanism used in the player.

As a point of reference I gave away a 16yr old Sony with the original laser and probably around 8 -10k hours of play. My PS Audio Lambda Drive (Philips CDM-9Pro mechanism $$$) which cost about 10X the Sony lasted less than 2K hours and was not reparable due to lack of parts.

Philips deservedly does not have a very good reputation in this field, having left many owners of High End gear based on their mechs in the lurch over the years.. Wish you luck finding a replacement laser..

(Yes I do have a bit of an axe to grind.. )

[GringoAudio]

Did you order a replacement laser from marantz? Are there any alignment/calibration issues issues installing a new one? What happens to the laser you think?? Do they wear out?

[aleksandar]

Yo gringo.........


Furst clean the laser with clean iso-propanol alchohol someting like 99.5% clean isopropanol, if you can find Teslanol IP isopropanol its nice thing and maybe it will help but since you have one option to "replace" the laser you can try to incereace the voltage of the laser but very very litle just touch the little potenciometer which is near the laser and you can trace it because the litle potenciometer is mounted on the laser pcb,

so turn a little and put a cd if it doesent read it increace the voltage little bit more but be carefull because you can turn this little knob clockwise and other way around so you can also decreace the voltage the only way is to test........

Wish you good luck

Alex

[aleksandar]

here is a picture of that little part for the voltage this is metal one there are also made from plastic.............

[aleksandar]

and other type

[GringoAudio]

I will have to open his player to see if here is a potentiometer. Thanks.

[xaudiox]

what is the model of the marantz cd player?

[aleksandar]

am an amater in this stuff but am 100% sure that there is potenciometer so expect that you will need to fix the cd...........