Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

> Do I have a lemon or is this actually relatively common?

	Yes. If it is on warranty, return it and get another. I've had
	a 2 CD players for 9 months now, and played 100+ CDs on them.
	Never had any problems with mistracking, etc. I've returned
	one CD so far (Brothers in Arms) and the exchanged copy played
	fine. Well if it isn't a lemon then at least it is a lymon. :-)

	- Sudhir (who bought the extended warranty, but never had to use it)

    
    

    This topic was covered in detail in notes 224,263,280, and 460.
    
    This is the most common problem with CD players in general, and
    the most difficult to get fixed sometimes.  Don't give up......
    just keep taking it back until they get it fixed, or they replace
    it.
    
    Dennis Laurence
    

    You probably  do have a lemon. When I bought my first CD player, about 2
    year  ago,  it  sounded fine for about a week. Then it started to have a
    problem  recognizing  discs  when  I  inserted  them. The problem became
    progressively  worse,  until  I  finally  exchanged  the player. I don't
    remember having a problem with the new one since.

    When I  returned  it,  the sale person made an entry to the computer (at
    Lechmere's)  about  the  exchange. So I asked him if he could access the
    statistics  on  return  rates.  He told me that the rate was 12% to 13%.
    That  was  2 years ago (CDs were still relatively new), and I don't know
    how  reliable the sales person was, but it gave me the impression that I
    was not the only one with a lemon.

    Oh, BTW. My car CD player skips occasionally because the lens get dirty.
    I bought a lense cleaning disc, and that seems to cure the problem.

Funny thing... i was just talking about a mistracking problem i'm
having with my Yamahaha with someone while reading this note.  Unfortunately
i've had this player for about a year and a half and hence is out of
warrantee and i can't recall when i first started noticing it.  It is 
extrememly intermittent so i feel that servicing the player would only 
be an effort in futality.  So the other evening i took the bloody cover 
off the thing, removed the hinged disc door, and cleaned the lens.  

V�ila! Cured!  Or so i thought....The next day i started to experience
mistracking problems again.  However, it seems that they always occur
on the first track.  But last night i was swapping disks like crazy
and never did it mistrack once.  Sigh... i guess i'll just have to live
with problem.  However it's a little annoying when i'm trying to demo the
player for someone who's new to the technology (yes, there are still
a few people around) and the damn thing starts skipping.

				-jim

    A bunch of early yamaha players were genuine yellow citrus.
    I had a CDX-3 that I eventually returned.  Yamaha replaced
    the model with the CD-300 (which is what I ended up with), which
    is much better.  I still get the occaisional mistrack, but
    it seems to be due to dust in the player, as blowing vigorously
    (NOT spitting!) into the player usually clears it up.
    
    
    			George

    I have a CD-2 that has intermittantly misstracked for about a year
    now (I've had it for two). Seems more prevalent on new disks, after
    the first couple of plays they don't seem to skip as bad. I would
    guess that 1 out of ten plays produces some sort of skip/hiccup.
    I didn't want to take it in during the warrenty cause it was the
    only player I had at the time. My Diskman seems to be less finiky.
    
    I'll try the disassemble and clean. Maybe I can mess it up enough
    to force me into buying a new one.
    
    tom

    I have a Sony CDP-30; it's really a basic player that's virtually
    unprogrammable. However, it has never mistracked except when shaken
    or bumped  or when one of those dirty, dusty, pepperoni pizza 
    stained discs is played.  Does anybody know about the tracking
    of better Sony's?  I'll be getting one someday...
    
    

    Well, I once bought the cheapest CD player on the market, the
    Sony D-5, and for a year and a half it never mistracked.  I now
    have a Sony CDP-510 and it never mistracks either.  Players keep
    getting better and better, and I don't think you would go wrong
    with any Sony player, or those by a number of other reputable firms.
    
    					Steve

    
    	I was going to put this in my Note 748.0 & .5, but this Note
    	is just as appropriate. My Player was starting to mistrack
    	again, but was well out of warranty. I had the official Sony
    	"Shop Manual" and figured I'd try to align it myself. Ofcourse
    	I didn't have the special YEDS-1 Alignment Disc or an o-scope,
    	but I figured I'd tweek the appropriate pots, and if it got
    	worse, I'd put them back where they were when I started. If
    	it got better, great, I wouldn't have to pay someone $40/hr
    	to do it. After I moved the unit (Sony CDP-302) onto my dining
    	room table to perform the "operation", it wasn't mis-tracking
    	on the discs it always had been before. What the f___? In the
    	alignment procedure in the Manual, it stated to be sure the
    	unit was level. Could that have been my problem? The unit
    	wasn't level? After checking the player in its habitat (the
    	shelf in the cabinet) with a Carpenter's Level, I discovered
    	I needed to raise the front of it about an eighth of an inch
    	to make it level, which I did. Sure as hell, all the discs
    	that had consistently mistracked before the leveling procedure
    	tracked fine. It was truly a miracle! At first I couldn't
    	believe it, but I haven't had any tracking problems since.
    
    								  Mike
    

    Don't buy the Sony CDXR7 car unit.  I'm on my FOURTH one and this one
    is broken in two ways.  In fact I have had trouble with my Sony color
    TV and my Dad's Sony is acting up too.  Steve Lionel is very lucky in
    all of his Sony purchases--nothing he buys with "Sony" on it ever
    breaks. :-) 
    
    GAS

    Re: .10
    
    Well, then, there's your answer.  Send me the money for the
    player, shipping, and $25 to cover "handling" charges, and I'll
    buy you any Sony product and it won't break.  Right?
    
    It's not true that I've never had a Sony product fail.  My
    STR-VX550 reciever died after about a year.  It was fixed for
    free under warranty by the dealer and has been fine ever since.
    Other than that, though, I can't recall any problems.
    
    				Steve

    Gee, a bit of dark humor injection...
    
    Lens cleaning,
    Mistracking,
    Leveling,
    Defective discs...
    
    Sounds like all the *same* problems that LPs had...
    
    And I thought CD was supposed to be better!!!
    
    re: the guy with the $600 player that mistracks all the time, you
    have yet another option. Return it for you $600 back, buy a $500
    Rega Planar 3 Turntable and a good $100 Grado cartridge and sell
    your CDs that you already have and buy records. You may have the
    same problems (mistracking, etc) but you will pay less for the
    software (music) and get *better* sound!
    
    Seriously (partly), though: Do the lens cleaning discs really work?
    Also, has anyone tried those heavy platter-type discs made of a
    sorbothane-like material under your CDs in your player, and do they
    really make it sound any better?
    
    David
    

    RE: Do CD lens cleaners really work.
    
    They work only if you have a dirty lens.  Otherwise you will not
    notice any difference after you use one.  A player had intermittant
    skipping and was spinning the disk faster than when it was originally
    purchased.  After using the lens cleaner, the skipping went away
    and the spinning rate returned to normal.  The lens cleaner suggested
    using it every 3 CD's but since you don't notice any difference
    after it's been cleaned once who cares?  Just use it when the lens
    is dirty.
    
    Kenney

    Re. .12
    
    If you put one of those heavy sorbethene type platters under your
    discs, it will make a 100% difference.  The music is recorded on
    the underside and will be blocked by the additional device.
    
    Seriously though, I have tried placing a second disc on TOP of the
    disc being played, and I believe that I heard a minor improvement
    in the quality of the sound.  If I had just walked into the room
    and were asked if the additional disc were in place or not, I probably
    couldn't easily tell.  It seemed to tighten up the lower end of
    the frequency spectrum.
    

>    If you put one of those heavy sorbethene type platters under your
>    discs, it will make a 100% difference.  The music is recorded on
>    the underside and will be blocked by the additional device.

Give the poor guy a break!

Maybe he has one of the players that requires you to put the disc upside
down on the turntable.  (Such players do exist.)

/john

    What is the idea behind this sorbethene device?
    Is it to add extra thickness or weight in an attempt to get the
    disk closer to the laser?
    Please give more info...
    
    -j
    

    Is this "sorbethane" thing like the "Discus" from Discwasher?  That
    thing looks like a metal disk that seems to weigh quite a bit. 
    For the $30 it costs it I'm curious whether it really does anything
    useful?  Anyone using/used one?
    
    Dave P

    RE Discus from Discwasher, theory behind sorbethane pad.
    
    The discus and sorbethane pad are similar but not the same.  The
    theory behind them are very similar.  The Discus add mass to the
    CD and an object with more mass rotating is more stable than a lighter
    one.  It will have a tendency to vibrate less.  The sorbethane pad
    on the other hand is very good at absorbing vibrations so you get
    the same thing.  A second disk on top (or bottom depending on your
    player) will do the same things as the Discus but will add 1x the
    weight of the original CD instead of 3x.  By making the disk more
    stable, the number of errors are suppose to decrease.  
    
    I've tried the 2 disk but not the others (cost $) and I can't hear
    any difference.  A few random bits wrong hear and there would be
    impossible for me to detect anyway (it might be a different story
    if the errors were consistent.)
    
    Try it and judge for yourself.  I know someone that hooked the error
    bit up to an osiliscope and said that it did reduce the number of
    errors.
    
    Kenney

    Maybe I'm just paranoid, but wouldn't adding pads/discs/etc. tend
    to overload the drive mechanism?  After all, the unit is engineered
    to handle a disc (CD or record) of "normal" weight.  If you have
    a turntable and increase the mass of the platter, the drive motor
    would be strained (yes?); an analogous situation would exist for
    the CD player.  Or is it that these devices add insignificant mass
    to the drive in question?
    
    David.

    I've recently read somewhere that in order to survive the handling
    expectyed during shipping, the spindle assemblies in CD players
    are way over engineered as far as wear from normal playing is
    concerned.  The article indicated that no auxillary Discus or whatever
    would appreciably change the wear rate or performance of the drive.
     The spindle assembly was designed to far outlive the remainder
    of the player.
    
    Now I'm sure that I'll hear from every owner of a drive with a worn
    out spindle. :-)
    

    re: .20
    
    HUH?  Most CD players I've seen have a shipping screw to lock the
    drive/spindle/arm mechanism down to prevent damage from rough handling.
    You remove the lock-down screw prior to using the player for the
    first time.  Was this article, per chance, written by Discus?
    
    Confused,
    David.

    They mentioned this in the article.  Said that the shipping screws
    lock the servo mechanism, but possibly not the spindle.  I'll try
    to find the article and relate the details.
    

    What shipping screws??? Maybe thats why I've never been able to
    open the door.....8-) ;^)
    
    -j
    

    In the most recent Stereophile, J. Gordon Holt has a question and
    answer column titled Consultation.  One of the questions reads:
    
    "Are most, or indeed, any CD players actually designed to handle
    the extra weight that will be imposed on their spindle bearing by
    the use of a disc stabilizer?  A CD is light enough that a light
    duty bearing could easily be subjected to double its usual load
    by the addition of a stabilizer disc.  Is this likely to accelerate
    wear on the spindle's end bearing, or put an additional load on
    the motor's electronic drive system?"
    
    To which JGH answered:
    
    "Probably, but probably not enough to have any significant effect
    on the life of the player or the drive system, or on its' performance.
    
    The bearing system must be rugged enough to withstand normal shipping
    by parcel carriers, and in order to take this with aplomb, it must
    be far more sturdy than it needs to be to merely support the weight
    of a single CD.  A second disc, or even the slightly heavier damper,
    should not faze the bearing at all.  (Analog turntables whose spindle
    bearing is marginally rugged are always shipped with the platter
    removed or immobilized by transit screws.  The transit screws in
    CD players tie down the laser-optical carriage, not the disc platter.)"
    
    As usual, this has been copied without permission.  I don't know
    that JGH is gospel, but at least I've found the source of my
    information. 
    

    Many newer CD players (including my Sony CDP-510) have no shipping
    screws.
    
    I thought the Discus was from Monster Cable?  They make two versions,
    a heavier one in brass.  A sticker on one I saw in the store said
    that it did not work on JVC players.
    					Steve