CD player not working fine, help needed

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by Mooly
Ah. What's up with Philips then ?

Pay a couple of grand for a high end player/transport with a Philips mechanism in it, have it wear out rather prematurely, and then try to find replacement parts for it. (My Lambda Drive had well under 1000 hours of use when it expired - CDM-9Pro) Talk to dozens of other people with the same problem. Then there is the case of the multi-kilobuck $$$ amazing self knackering Marantz SACD player of a few years back. (chipset issue, and no support from Philips.)

Literally thousands of machines from Theta, PS Audio, ARC, Rotel and several well regarded English marques used the CDM-9Pro. The lasers fail over time whether or not they are heavily used, expensive NOS lasers are often bad when obtainable, and neither Daisy nor Philips provided any assistance or even responded to email requests for information. (Other than to deny assistance.) Daisy sold a lot of the loader assemblies used by small boutique vendors like Theta and PS Audio. (The pcb under the mechanism in mine said Daisy quite prominently. No assistance whatsoever.)
Hence my dislike of anything to do with Philips CD mechanisms. My general impression of Philips has been extremely negatively impacted by this experience as well. Sadly the players that used this mechanism were some of the best sounding available and their loss of use is/was a major disappointment to their owners.

Have Axe, will Grind...

[Mooly]

Fair point I suppose. Having said that we used to order KSSxxx types like they were going out of fashion at one time.
Bit of a difference though, between a £100 grot box and a piece of real kit.
The swing arm's were a bit temperamental, I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. I know what you mean over NOS parts. My more humble Micromega uses the ( much maligned ) CDM12.4 which is a gem.

[Assyst1606]

Hi,
Thanks once again.
The rubber piece (yellow arrow shown in the attached photo) is not really a rubber, it’s hard though.
Anyway I’ll take time to visit the local electronic shops to see if they have the exact transport mechanism for sale. I don’t have the experience to replace the individual part.
Oh, I also read about the Philips transport on the web but some hi-end CD players use it.

[Mooly]

Good luck with it, let us know how you get on.

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by Mooly
Fair point I suppose. Having said that we used to order KSSxxx types like they were going out of fashion at one time.
Bit of a difference though, between a £100 grot box and a piece of real kit.
The swing arm's were a bit temperamental, I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. I know what you mean over NOS parts. My more humble Micromega uses the ( much maligned ) CDM12.4 which is a gem.

Interestingly enough almost all of the problems traced back to the laser, the mechanical components were quite reliable. It was sad, and almost every esteemed American high end CD player or transport used this mechanism at some point, and they will all eventually fail. (Many already have.) A couple of years ago I gave away a Sony cdp from 1991 that still works perfectly and had something like 5 - 6K hours on it minimum, and it is still in almost daily use.. I would have expected no less of the Philips mechanism in a machine that cost 6X what that Sony cost. That's the basis of my axe grinding..

[Mooly]

Well as a service tech I always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Philips. The ideas were good, the implementation could be terrible many times - not audio but VCR's and TV's. I was one of the few to actually like their service manuals, I thought they were brilliant -- nobody else did, they just didn't bother to understand the layout.
I had an early Sony. Bought it new, the CDP101 and had it a good few years. Sold it on to a colleague and he sold it on further down the line. Never heard of it failing -- wonder where it is now Had a Denon DCD1500mk1, good machine but it couldn't come close to the build quality of that first generation Sony. Diecast chassis, hall effect motors etc, first gen stuff is always like that, think of the early "metal mickey" VHS recorders.
Which brings us back to your CDM 9. It's sad. A CDM9 pro should be good for 1000's of hours really. If and when my Micromega gets replaced, the type of pickup etc in the new one will be of major importance. I want something I can get parts for.
I actually keep a tally ( how sad is that ) of hours use -- only approximate, currently at 1400 hours on the present laser.
I must get out more

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by Assyst1606
Hi,
Thanks once again.
The rubber piece (yellow arrow shown in the attached photo) is not really a rubber, it’s hard though.
Anyway I’ll take time to visit the local electronic shops to see if they have the exact transport mechanism for sale. I don’t have the experience to replace the individual part.
Oh, I also read about the Philips transport on the web but some hi-end CD players use it.

You're referring to the spindle/puck assembly - I was referring to the 4 RUBBER grommets circled in green at the corners of the mechanism chassis plate. If these have been disturbed and not reinstalled correctly the mechanism will sit at the wrong height relative to the rest of the loader and the bridge that holds the clamp assembly - and in the picture they do not look quite right.

[kevinkr]

Originally posted by Mooly
Well as a service tech I always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Philips. The ideas were good, the implementation could be terrible many times - not audio but VCR's and TV's. I was one of the few to actually like their service manuals, I thought they were brilliant -- nobody else did, they just didn't bother to understand the layout.
I had an early Sony. Bought it new, the CDP101 and had it a good few years. Sold it on to a colleague and he sold it on further down the line. Never heard of it failing -- wonder where it is now Had a Denon DCD1500mk1, good machine but it couldn't come close to the build quality of that first generation Sony. Diecast chassis, hall effect motors etc, first gen stuff is always like that, think of the early "metal mickey" VHS recorders.
Which brings us back to your CDM 9. It's sad. A CDM9 pro should be good for 1000's of hours really. If and when my Micromega gets replaced, the type of pickup etc in the new one will be of major importance. I want something I can get parts for.
I actually keep a tally ( how sad is that ) of hours use -- only approximate, currently at 1400 hours on the present laser.
I must get out more

Indeed it was, and I did finally build a variant of Peter's Shigaclone and I have lots of spare parts and getting more soon..

[Assyst1606]

Originally posted by kevinkr



You're referring to the spindle/puck assembly - I was referring to the 4 RUBBER grommets circled in green at the corners of the mechanism chassis plate. If these have been disturbed and not reinstalled correctly the mechanism will sit at the wrong height relative to the rest of the loader and the bridge that holds the clamp assembly - and in the picture they do not look quite right.

I didn't touch/disturbed the whole transport unit since day 1. I only look into it the day when I encountered this problem.
So my guess now is that the 4 rubber grommets might have worn out.