CD Player Reliability/Longevity

I was thinking about this today in relation to the second hand market and the prices asked for high-end but old CD players.

In the early days of CD, there was much talk about the unreliability of the lasers in particular and the high cost of replacing them. Indeed, the lesser breeds of retailers used to play on this in an attempt to sell aftercare warranties and such like.

Now, I have owned a few CD players. My first was a Marantz CD50SE which I bought in 1989 and sold in 1996. It never put a foot wrong. My Alpha 9 is nearly 5 years old and is fine. It's predecessor, a Sony CDP-XE300 was sold to a friend and is still doing fine after nearly 8 years. I also have a Technics personal SLXP-7 bought in 1991 and still in regular use at the office.

So what is your experience? Are CD players reliable? How nervous (or not) should one be about buying a 3/6/9/12 year old CD player?

 

Apart from a couple of personal CD players I've never had them pack up on me. My parents 1987 Sony midi sized CD player started acting oddly in around 1996 as the tray would often keep spitting out.


Before I gave my parents my old Sony CDP530 they were using a Goodmans 'Pioneer style' 6 disc multichanger which I plan to stick on ebay soon. This is probably nearing 10 years old and it still works 100% fine.

My Sony 530 I bought in 2001 brand newand had no problems but the try does sound a little tired now but it did have very heavy use as I tend to change discs a lot.

I have bought a couple of faulty things from ebay so if you were to buy one second hand I would be careful, probably inspect it first.

 

my harman kardon hd500 is now 19, date of manufacture is march 1985. still working.
my arcam alpha 5+ is circa 1995, so 9 and counting, still working fine - only had the drawer mechanism fixed as the plastic cog wore out (or something like that).

 

My 14 year old Marantz CD50SE is still going strong allthough I need to check the disc "clamp" again as it's obviously gone out of adjustment causing it to make some noise when the disc is spinning and the resultant instability of the CD is causing unacceptable skipping.

I had this issue before though and it was easy to fix and once fixed, there was no more skipping so I know it's not a laser issue.

Michael.

 

I suspect it was scaremongering. In fact a dealer told me marantz were always having problems, my friends cd41 has been going strong for at least 11 yrs, and my cd63ki is excellent, too.

 

Yeah, I've got a Marantz CD63SE that has never failed to play any disc I've tried.

 

My CD63 was fine from when I bought it in 1995 to when I sold it in 2003. It still is fine (parents have it now). I once had to lubricate the laser tracking rail, but other than that no probs at all.

My RCD-991 had a few issues, and the mech died because of a crappy little nylon cog that stripped itself.

Not had any problems with the CD16, although Henry did say that he'd had the laser replaced on it.

 

I have a Marantz CD-63MkII KI Signature that for 8 years has been fine. However, in the last few weeks it has taken a dislike to one of my CDs that it never had a problem with before. I can play it [a Dusty Springfield hits collection] fine in all other players I've tried and Nero CD Speed on my PC cannot detect any problem with the surface of the CD.

Yet it still has all kinds of odd problems when it reaches certain identical offsets on most of the tracks. Most odd of all is when I play track 4, about 2 minutes in starts skipping and the display changes from track 4 to track 84. Then it gets stuck in an endless loop.

It's very weird. All other CDs are fine so I guess it's just a blip.

 

Could it not just be a dirty/stratched CD?

 

mattross- that sounds exactly like what mine did. Except mine was 38 minutes in. First it only happened with one particular disc. Then it started to happen more.

Took the lid off, ran a cotton bud soaked in GT85 up and down the laser rail a few times, lid back on. Put in Queen's Greatest hits II (because it's 75:59 long, and was the longest CD I had at the time. Fugees The Score is longer, however).

Problem gone and has not recurred in the 5 years since.

 

So on the whole, you guys have a pretty good experience of CD players and one should not be worried about buying a 2nd hand one even up to say 8 years old.

Anyone else? Anyone had a bad experience? Anyone in the trade like to comment?

 

Well my experience certainly hasn't put me off secondhand CD players. I'm about to buy a nearly-3-year-old Nu-Vista CD player. Not as old that's for sure, but a lot more expensive than my Marantz was when I bought it new at £500.

 

Er. First CD player was a Teac something or other - it was cheap (£120 or so) from Richers in 1995 - packed up on me about two years later. everything skipped. second was a sony 530 that was fine for the few years I had it - its been with the ex missus for the last 3 years and haven't a clue how its born up. Current Rotel has been absoultely fine for 3 years or so.

 

In general I would say go for it and wouldn't worry about anything under 10 years old provided it's been well looked after. There may be the need for some minor maintenance/lubrication.

Michael.

 

S/h buying is the best way to go and can save u a fortune, but when it comes to a cdp always worth trying to find out how well it's been looked after, how many owners etc, and getting some kind of insured delivery. The delicate mechanical components in cdps, relative to amps and speakers are more suspetible to be to damaged etc.

I've bought s/h cdp before, but wouldn't spend loads. For something of greater value, rather err on the cautious side and pay a bit extra and buy ex-demo with a decent warranty. Then again buying one from someone off this forum who has a good rep would be a safe bet.

 

I bought the first B&O as soon as it come out, around 1985, and it stopped working 1989, I got it fixed, but it didnt last long, so I replaced it with a Sony around 1992, it still works, but is rarely used...

 

Identifying quality and age of secondhand cdp's SONY CDP991

I thought I would go the inexpensive route to replace my dead CPD by looking on ebay. Most od the one's being sold do not seen to have reviews available anymore thus I am operating in the dark. Is there a website anywhere with recammendations of sh units or archives of manufacturing dates etc. I did find an archived table for Luxman for example but not for brands such as Marantz or Sony. I am looking at a Sony CDP 991, for example, which I believe was quite costly and exceptional in its day but these adjectives are so subjective depending on the question 'when was it so...'?

 

I've had two Arcam Alpha CDP's develop faults; one had an intermittent problem reading disks (any) and the other one wouldn't power up one day. I sold both as spares/repairs on ebay and in fact the last one (an 8SE) I actually got about £100 back on it (originally bought it 2nd hand for about £150 I think) so wasn't too out of pocket.

My current CDP is an older Teac VRDS that has so far behaved perfectly. Fingers crossed.

 

My Quad 67 has had regular use for the past 13 years. The only problem I've had was a couple of months ago when the drawer wouldn't open. It was just a dodgy cog. Quad replaced it, now everything is fine. Quality engineering, methinks.

BTW, I'd always heard that Quad had a good name for service. It's a well-deserved reputation - you couldn't deal with a more friendly and helpful bunch of people .

 

turning a cdp on its head

I used to have a Vincent S3, was ok for 3 years
Now my Lyngdorf cd has had no probs yet.

I was told by a friend that it makes sense to turn a cdp on the side occasionally, or upside down, if it is not being used for a long time. Like keep it upside down for a week and then turn back . No need to listen like that though..

Apparently it should help some loosening of some kind of suspension of the laser or the drive, I dont know.
Something hangs downwards inside, and it apparently makes sense to expose that thing to a pull in the opposite direction.

Also I was told if I buy an ex demo thats been on one place not played for x years, a knowledgeable dealer should adhere to this rule otherwise it might be bad for the sound
ever heard of this?