McIntosh MCD500 low output on CD play

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kiran1103

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Joined 2019
#1
Experts.. Here's an unusual situation that I am unable to find a solution. I have a Mcintosh MCD500 that had CD issues. The TOC read and when hit play it stayed at 00.00. After 2 days of troubleshooting and replacing laser, I fixed the CD play issue. It was almost a victory dance. When I connected to the system the sound output is very low. Even at full volume the sound was just like you hear at 10%. I used both fixed and variabe outputs and it was the same. When I switch to Coax input and used another CD player the volume was perfect. The way it should be. Am now clueless on what could be the issue. Checked all cables and cleaned. Any troubleshooting steps here? Thanks
 
#3
I don’t have the schematic unfortunately. I am waiting for the remote as well thinking that it could be that volume level from remote if lowered it will store the previous setting and default it when it switches on. But I wonder why fixed outputs should get affected. I read denon dcd 820 has this weird problem that without remote it can’t get the volume up
 
#9
Thank you huggygood. This is really helpful. I see the main board is similar in structure. Except that 500 has digital inputs as addition. What I noticed more in headphones done work on cd/sacd play. And when playing CD the output volume on analogue is very low. Now the optical out is at full volume. There isn’t a master reset so next I am going to try is firmware update. From the schematic of 301 any suggestions on which components to check. Also I noticed there is lot of cold solder joints. I don’t want to shotgun everything so if there is a section you want me to target I can do that and see. If it resolved then will do full board reflow
 
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