If you remove the laser transport(tricky cause you have to unsnap the little pins that "float" it), you'll find an extremely small micro-micro switch that tells the logic circuit when the drawer is closed. If the switch pin(plastic), or the finger on the drawer are bent, or if they are somehow not making good mechanical contact- nothing's going to work. You can see it if you look through the side of the mechanism. When re-assembled, the switch has to be held closed with a piece of celluloid or you'll bend it. Pay very close attention to every step of dis-assembly, so you get it right putting it back together.
I was crazy about mine as well. I bought one for my son as an upgrade to his first system. Still a best-buy at the price. The Alpha/Delta combo was the only system that could win my heart away from it! Same CD transport, but a tubed DAC. I've gone to a Balanced Audio Technology VK-D5, but I can't bring myself to sell the Alpha/Delta. I hope the earlier tip helps you get the Icon spinning again.
makinson1, like I said above I had the same problem with my CAL Icon MKII CD player just stopped working suddenly from one day to the next just as yours did. I was able to repair my CAL by partially taking apart the CD transport and blowing it out with compressed air. I believe my problem was the micro-switch that rodman99999 mentioned was being compromised by some dust or hair and was not able to signal the CD player that the tray was closed. I wonder now if I had just opened the CD tray and blew in some compressed air if that would have dislodged the crap that was effecting the door switch. I'm glad that I did it the way I did, since I feel better that what ever I blew out of the transport is no longer in the player and I took the opportunity to blow out the rest of the CD player at the same time.
I did get a rough quote from Approved Audio Service to fix this problem, since they apparently have the parts and knowledge to repair these CAL CD players. I decided to try and fix it myself after hearing the rough quote, since they told me that it would cost me $400 just for the CD transport and that did not include labor or shipping. They told me they like to change out the whole CD-transport assembly rather than trouble-shoot the problem at component level. This surprised me since a direct quote from their website read "We have invested in sophisticated soldering/desoldering equipment-rather than replacing entire circuit boards or modules, we can replace defective miniaturized and surface mounted components. Troubleshooting to component level saves you money."
I was very hesitant to throw that kind of money on a CD player that is almost 16 years old. If I had listened to them and just sent it in I would end up paying ~$600 for CD player repair that only really needed to be blown out and cleaned. Before someone tells me I'm being too harsh on them, I specifically asked them if they could first try and troubleshoot the CD transport at the component level instead of replacing the whole thing and they said they like to just swap out the entire transport like I said earlier. This inspired me to attempt the repair on my own, which is the first time I have ever attempted to work on a high-end audio component.
I did get a rough quote from Approved Audio Service to fix this problem, since they apparently have the parts and knowledge to repair these CAL CD players. I decided to try and fix it myself after hearing the rough quote, since they told me that it would cost me $400 just for the CD transport and that did not include labor or shipping. They told me they like to change out the whole CD-transport assembly rather than trouble-shoot the problem at component level. This surprised me since a direct quote from their website read "We have invested in sophisticated soldering/desoldering equipment-rather than replacing entire circuit boards or modules, we can replace defective miniaturized and surface mounted components. Troubleshooting to component level saves you money."
I was very hesitant to throw that kind of money on a CD player that is almost 16 years old. If I had listened to them and just sent it in I would end up paying ~$600 for CD player repair that only really needed to be blown out and cleaned. Before someone tells me I'm being too harsh on them, I specifically asked them if they could first try and troubleshoot the CD transport at the component level instead of replacing the whole thing and they said they like to just swap out the entire transport like I said earlier. This inspired me to attempt the repair on my own, which is the first time I have ever attempted to work on a high-end audio component.
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