CD player unwell

Hello there,
I was hoping somebody will be able to help me. I've got an old system (see sig). Last night my cd player (arcam alpha 5+) started having trouble with the loading mechanism. It turns out that the cog that drives the tray, some of the teeth have broken off.
Is the new cog easy to source and fit?

Also whilst on about Cd players, I've come across upgardes for cd players (clock upgrades etc...) are these worthwhile?

I'm thinking of upgrading to a arcam dela 250 cd transport as well.
Cheers for any help

Jim

 

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/avondale/

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

Little cogs stripping themselves eh? Sounds familiar, and it cost me £104 last time...

CD player clock upgrades are very much worthwhile. Some players will benefit more than others (depending on the level of clock-induced jitter with the stock clock), but even the lowest-jitter stock players can usually see an improvement.

 

Had the same problem from the same player this time last year! If you're not all fingers and thumbs, it's an easy repair. I emailed Arcam customer support asking what availability of spares was and got the following response:

______________________________________
Thank you for your email.

The part you require is our part number TPH21 and the cost for this part is £7.00 + VAT. If you would like to order this item you can post a cheque to the address below made payable to A & R Cambridge Ltd. Alternatively you can email or telephone me with your credit/debit card details (not American Express).

I hope this helps you further
--
Regards
Graeme Thurston,
Customer Support Assistant/Spares Coordinator Arcam, Waterbeach, Cambridge, CB5 9PB, England
Tele: +44 (0)1223 203203
Fax: +44 (0)1223 863384
http://www.arcam.co.uk
_________________________________________

Hope that helps a bit.

Toby

 

Cheers for your help
Jim

 

Anybody have any thoughts on wether to go for a full arcam delta transport/dac setup or just have my alpha 5+ modified?
Also any other modifiers worth looking at or is avondale my best bet?

 

Personally I'd go for the Avondale mods.

Cheers, Robbo

 

just phoned up arcam for the part, its still £7 + VAT which is good news for me. Will have to wait for a week for it to come in tho

 

Just an update, recieved new part this morning, took me a while to figure out how to dismantle the board to get at it underneath but sorted in the end. All went back ok.
Slight problem though, and I think it may be the cause of the cog stripping. When the tray opens the motor still tried to turn for about a second after the tray is fully open. I recon this has to be a design fault. Any ideas anybody?

 

My thoughts also. Mine does the same. You'd have thought that a second microswitch to let the unit know when the drawer was fully extended wouldn't have broken the bank...

That is, unless there _is_ one hidden somewhere that fails!

Toby

 

Have checked my friends one, who has the same one and it does exactly the same as well. Looks like a design fault then

 

Funnily enough my friend who has the same one, phoned me up yesterday saying he's had gone now. He bought his about 6 months after I'd got mine so looks like these things have a life expectancy of 8 years or so, or just coinidense

 

If they are built like their dacs I would just put it down to shit quality.

Arcam should be sold through Currys and Dixons to stop fooling the public.