Arcam Alpha 5-Damage in Transit.

[DBCGMartin]

Hope you can help, received the AA5 CD player through the post from France. When inserting a disc an awful racket is made and the disc is unreadable (err msg).

The mechanism itself moves smoothly and the drawer opens with no problem. Also the spinlde is constantly spinning when powered up.
The unit itself has been heavily and expensively upgraded so I would like to keep and fix it if possible.
My initial findings indicate a broken laser or the platter having moved on the motor spindle due to rough handling-any thoughts would be greatly appreciated-Martin.

[AndrewGM]

Possible stupid question : Have you had the lid off yet ?

[DBCGMartin]

No-thought it best to seek advice first-Martin.

[AndrewGM]

Don't be afraid - whip it off !!
2 screws on either side and 4 on the back - you'll probably see straight away what's wrong or post up your findings asap.

Andrew

[DBCGMartin]

Hi Andrew-right the deed is done-nothing obviously loose or broken ? Martin.

[AndrewGM]

Martin
You'll find the transport on the left, a small green board with the DAC chip, filter chip, regulators and the rca output sockets attached to it. On the bottom ( underneath this ) is the big main board with the transformer attached to it on the right.
It could be a simple thing that's gone wrong like the small DAC board has dislodged itself from the main board and needs pressing back down - carefully !!
You can power it up with the lid off and watch what is going on. If it's clanking around at least you can see where or why.
Loads of experts here too - so you'll get some input. I own one of these A5's and whilst I'm not a techy I may be able to help a bit.

Andrew

[AndrewGM]

OK

The small green board does it seem flat or is it raised anywhere ?

[AndrewGM]

Popping out - back in 10 minutes

[DBCGMartin]

Board seems secure and properly seated. Powered up and tried to play CD -whirrs away continuously at varying speeds. The racket seems to be coming from a white cardboard and gauze type thing which seems to sit directly over the centre of the cd mechanism-it's a kind of flat spindle but that wouldn't appear to stop it playing-the display on the front shows six dashes or "err"-Martin.

[DBCGMartin]

Andrew-checked it out carefully in a darkened room and there doesn't seem to be any laser light at all. Not sure when this usually fires up but guessing it should be fairly early in the playing process-Martin.