Cambridge Audio CD2

[ubuntu]

Originally Posted by paul_peraic

Hello

------ the designer Stan Curtis but it is taking a while to do so.

Maybe if we all request it from him he will be more persuasive in his response but I do realise he is busy so it might still take a while , if you want his E-mail give me a reply and we can hopefully get this thread moving again.

he told me a week ago that unfortunately he no longer has a set of drawings for this model.

[paul_peraic]

Hello ubuntu

He actually does he is just not very helpful !

I almost had the schematic until a deal went sour with some TDA1514A's I was going to purchase off him and he has held it against me ever since.

I have nothing good to say about this guy except that he is a talented designer!

So maybe if we get a few other guys to nag he might actually help but he definitely does have the service manuals for both Cambridge CD2 and Cambridge CD3 ( He has also stated this on another forum this is how I found out and also by asking him prior to a deal going sour ) just not the will to make an effort for any one.

[gdt]

Does anyone know of a source of NSM4202A modules (in small quantities, eg 8) to replace faulty displays in Cambridge Audio CD2 ?

[tiefbassuebertr]

Some years ago I did perform the repair service for the cambridge audio devices, also for the old vintage players CD2 and CD3. Never the laser pickup resp. the easy to replace Rohm laser diode was the reason for the observed failures.
You need the Philips Service Manuals of follow transport mechanism:
1) CDM1 MK-II
2) CDM4
(both manuals include the suited servo boards with TDA5708/5709 and the power servo buffer amps TCA0372) and Service manuals for the Philips CD Player models CD-160 and CD-350

Originally Posted by gdt

Does anyone know of a source of NSM4202A modules (in small quantities, eg 8) to replace faulty displays in Cambridge Audio CD2 ?

Check out post #40 about
Help! CONRAD JOHNSON DF1 CDplayer-preamp

[cchean]

Originally Posted by Sarion

It has a cdm2/29, it says so on the mechanism.

And wonderous things still happen...

I opened the player up to look at it. Then I closed it up again. It seems to play fine!

The right LED display however is blinking all the time, apparently switching between displaying time and something else. The left hand display (track etc.) is working fine. Also the Disc Error light blinks now and then, although I can`t hear anything going wrong over the speakers. And one LED light seems to be out (horizontal bar in the middle of one 8)

Additionally, the player cracks (over the speakers) when I open and close the drawer.

Could it be a grounding problem?

I've just started to look at it properly now. More errors may appear!

And I would love to see the manual! Thanks!

Regards,

Berend

Hi Berend,

I was reading one of your older post as I just bought myself a Cambridge CD2 CD player and it has the same problem you mentioned, a cracking noise over the speakers when you open and close the drawer. Were you able t find out what that is? Any input will be appreciated. Thanks.

Carlos

[homemade]

Originally Posted by cchean

Hi Berend,

I was reading one of your older post as I just bought myself a Cambridge CD2 CD player and it has the same problem you mentioned, a cracking noise over the speakers when you open and close the drawer. Were you able t find out what that is? Any input will be appreciated. Thanks.

Carlos

Hi Carlos. Did you just buy this on ebay? If so , that was mine.

I never heard this noise you mention. Only issue it had was that it would need 10-15 min warm-up before playing properly. Then it was fine. A very fine player I must add.

When I got this player , it did the above mentioned display flickering. There are 2 clock crystals on the main board. They are mounted with the leads exposed above the board , with a cap very close to it. The lead on one crystal was touching the the cap lead. When I moved the crystal away , the display worked correctly. Maybe this is the problem .

[cchean]

Originally Posted by homemade

Hi Carlos. Did you just buy this on ebay? If so , that was mine.

I never heard this noise you mention. Only issue it had was that it would need 10-15 min warm-up before playing properly. Then it was fine. A very fine player I must add.

When I got this player , it did the above mentioned display flickering. There are 2 clock crystals on the main board. They are mounted with the leads exposed above the board , with a cap very close to it. The lead on one crystal was touching the the cap lead. When I moved the crystal away , the display worked correctly. Maybe this is the problem .

Hello Paul,

Yes, that's me, so I bought the CD2 from you. Yes, it made a strange noise thru the speakers, just like the other diy member mentioned but it doesn't happen everytime, it seems like a grounding problem.

I opened up the player when it got here. The little clamp that holds the CD in place was loose when it came to Iopened it up to fix it. I saw the 2 crystals you mentioned and I noticed there's some black silicone on them.

It is a very good player, I was thinking about doing the lampizator mod later ahead.

Carlos

[DeepBass909]

I recently doug up my 2 Cambridge Audio CD2 player, both with a faulty CDM2 unit. They power-on, the disc's spin, but give a read error almost straight away (I saw one going from working to failing in a couple of weeks...). This was the reason they were replaced by the parents of an ex-girlfriend of mine.

I'm a big fan of Cambridge (my receiver and dvd-player are also both Cambridge units, but from the new era) and would like to give at least one of these players a second life, especially because one of them is an early production model (SN-number 152).

I can confirm that they at least were fitted with the CDM2/10 (SN 152) and CDM2/29 (SN 947) pickup units (both units are found in my players).

I'm very (did I say very? I mean very, very, very, very, etc., etc.,) interested in repairing these players and maybe (since I have 2 of them ) upgrading one.

Could someone give me some pointers of help?

[gdt]

I have owned a CD2 from new (in 1988) - bought it in preference to a Denon player which was the same price but didn't have the fluid and musical sound the CD2 had.

I looked at upgrading my CD2 to a Linn player in 1998 but found that it sounded far better than a Linn Genki and a Linn Ikemi - only the Ikemi through the AA DAC sounded better to my ears.

I have just done a repair job on my CD2 which I use with an Audio Alchemy DDE 1.0 DAC (sounded better than the internal CD2 DAC system).

My CD2 suffered from the following faults (in this order) :
1. Display segments stopped working on the NSM4202A displays (after 2 years from new)
2. Audio output buzz (7 years from new)
3. Stopped reading CDs (14 years from new).

Have now addressed the faults:
1. I have located a source of new NSM4202A displays and replaced mine - though the new ones are green, at least they work!
2. Audio output buzz - put a scope on the DC rails and found sawtooth wave - essentially all the PSU electrolytics had failed (some were even being run over their rated voltage). Re-capped the entire main PCB with new electrolytics.
3. Stopped reading disks - found an article that said that CDM 2 and 4 mechanisms fail due to dried out electrolytics - so re-capped the whole servo PCB.

I use a Philips CD160 (NSM4202A display, compatible mechanism, and same chipset as CD2 player) as a 'test harness'.

I still have two dead DAC daughterboards - but at least the player works as a transport again. I plan to repair the DAC board 'offline' using my CD160 test harness, and provide it with upgraded Opamps, capacitors, DAC chips, and a dedicated super-regulated power supply (with totally separate supplies for the DACs and Opamps).

I may also uprate the master clock on the transport section at some stage - however now that I have it working as a transport I may leave it well alone for a while!

[Looneytunes]

I miss my Cambridge too. Where did you find the display?

Looney