[[email protected]]

Sony CDP-C705 5 Disc Carousel Misbehavior


Bought it a few months ago for a song - literally - at a thrift shop.

Exhibits the following, occasionally:

A - On a single CD, freezes and/or skips, particularly on higher tracks toward end of album. Kinda like pressing fast fwd/backwd.

B - On multiple CDs, freezes and/or skips. In shuffle mode, sometimes can't 'find' another disc to shuffle to.

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc entirely, sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens cleaner instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.


What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic control?

[whosbest54[_3_]]

In article ,
says...
Sony CDP-C705 5 Disc Carousel Misbehavior


Bought it a few months ago for a song - literally - at a thrift shop.

Exhibits the following, occasionally:

A - On a single CD, freezes and/or skips, particularly on higher tracks toward
end of album. Kinda like pressing fast fwd/backwd.

B - On multiple CDs, freezes and/or skips. In shuffle mode, sometimes can't
'find' another disc to shuffle to.

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc entirely,
sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens cleaner
instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.


What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic control?

Probably an old and weak laser. Not much can be done without replacing it
IMHO.

whosbest54
--
The flamewars are over...if you want it.

Unofficial rec.audio.opinion Usenet Group Brief User Guide:
http://whosbest54.netau.net/rao.htm

Unofficial rec.music.beatles Usenet Group Brief User Guide:
http://whosbest54.netau.net/rmb.html

If the pages time out, try whosbest54.netau.net in
a site unblocker proxy like: http://www.site2unblock.com

[David Platt]

In article ,
wrote:

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc
entirely, sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens
cleaner instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.

What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic control?

These could be symptoms of a read-head "wear-out". The laser diodes
do suffer with age - the laser output decreases, and the reflected
signal seen by the photodiode has a lower and lower signal level.
This causes both an increase in the error rate of the signal, and
problems in tracking (the track-following servo doesn't have enough
signal to work correctly).

A *very* short-term fix which sometimes helps (or at least can help
diagnose that this is the problem) is to tweak a trimpot in the laser
circuit which boosts its output. It's short-term because the
increased current though the laser accelerates its aging... you're on
a "slippery slope" to laser failure. The only long-term fix is to
replace the laser (which is commonly part of a larger optical assembly
that must be replaced as a unit) and then realign.

These could be symptoms of dust or dirt or tar in the optical path
(e.g. lens) which your "cleaning disc" hasn't removed... these discs
often don't work very well, and (depending on how the brush works) can
knock the lens out of alignment and make matters worse. A careful
manual cleaning of the lens (and, in some players, of a small mirror
located between the lens and the laser/photodiode) with a soft-bristle
brush sometimes does better. Some people report good results using a
very small amount of a liquid cleaner (either electronics-grade
isopropyl alcohol, or the sort of liquid cleaner used for
polycarbonate eyeglass lenses) - moisten a brush, wipe the lens
gently, then wipe equally gently with soft lint-free eyeclass-lens
cleaning tissue.

If you or anyone else smokes around your CD player, it's likely that
some tobacco-smoke "tar" has built up on the lens (and/or mirror if
one is present). This stuff is very difficult to remove, and if the
lens is impaired by it you may have no choice other than to replace
the whole optical assembly.

These could also be symptoms of tracking problems due to gunked-up
"rails". CD players have two different mechanisms for tracking the
groove - the lens itself is moved (within the optical sled) to track
small positional changes, and the whole sled is moved on linear or
semicircular "rails" to make larger adjustments. If dust builds up on
the rails, or if the lubrication dries out or turns gummy, the sled
won't move smoothly and the CD player can lose its ability to track
the disc. This can often be remedied by cleaning the rails (wiping
them with a Q-tip moistened in electronics-grade isopropanol) and then
relubricating with a small amount of the right lubricant. Sewing-
machine oil, watchmaker's oil, instrumentation oil are all good
choices - they're light, low-viscosity, non-drying oils which have no
solvents. Tri-Flo is a Teflon-bearing oil which also can work well.
Don't use WD-40 or Liquid Wrench.

[[email protected]]

Thanks fellas. What if mine is just an alignment issue.

There's supposed to be a white pot I read about that adjusts alignment specifically. I suslect it might be alignment because even my cats can make it skip when running and chasing each other during war games.

[Trevor Wilson]

On 3/05/2014 1:23 AM, wrote:
Sony CDP-C705 5 Disc Carousel Misbehavior


Bought it a few months ago for a song - literally - at a thrift shop.

Exhibits the following, occasionally:

A - On a single CD, freezes and/or skips, particularly on higher tracks toward end of album. Kinda like pressing fast fwd/backwd.

B - On multiple CDs, freezes and/or skips. In shuffle mode, sometimes can't 'find' another disc to shuffle to.

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc entirely, sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens cleaner instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.


What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic control?


**Clean the lens. A brush style lens cleaner is almost, but not quite,
useless. Lift the lid and do the job properly. If that fails, replace
the laser. ALL symptoms listed suggest weak laser power.

--
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

[[email protected]]

Trevor:

Guess that's what I'll have to do. On a side note - it is very interesting that CDs I have played in this component come out dustier than when they were inserted(!)


What is the safest cleaning item to contact a laser lens with - least likely to move/misalign it?

[Michael Black[_2_]]

On Sat, 3 May 2014, wrote:

Trevor:

Guess that's what I'll have to do. On a side note - it is very interesting that CDs I have played in this component come out dustier than when they were inserted(!)


What is the safest cleaning item to contact a laser lens with - least
likely to move/misalign it?

I've just used q-tips, and not fussed overly about being really gentle.

I found a blu-ray player last year lying on the sidewalk, and when I
finally got a disc to play in it, it didn't even recognize the disk. It
played DVDs fine, but then a blu-ray player has two lasers and lenses, one
for each type.

Once I cleaned the lens with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip, the blu-ray disk
was playable.

YOu might want to read the faqs from sci.electronics.repair, at
http://repairfaq.org

There's a whole one about CD players, and another about "optical disk
players".

Michael

[Mark Zacharias]

"whosbest54" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
Sony CDP-C705 5 Disc Carousel Misbehavior


Bought it a few months ago for a song - literally - at a thrift shop.

Exhibits the following, occasionally:

A - On a single CD, freezes and/or skips, particularly on higher tracks
toward
end of album. Kinda like pressing fast fwd/backwd.

B - On multiple CDs, freezes and/or skips. In shuffle mode, sometimes
can't
'find' another disc to shuffle to.

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc entirely,
sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens
cleaner
instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.


What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic
control?

Probably an old and weak laser. Not much can be done without replacing it
IMHO.

whosbest54
--
The flamewars are over...if you want it.

Unofficial rec.audio.opinion Usenet Group Brief User Guide:
http://whosbest54.netau.net/rao.htm

Unofficial rec.music.beatles Usenet Group Brief User Guide:
http://whosbest54.netau.net/rmb.html

If the pages time out, try whosbest54.netau.net in
a site unblocker proxy like: http://www.site2unblock.com



Pickup flat wire.

part number 1-575-001-11.

Common problem with models using the the KSS-240 pickup.

Mark Z.

[Mark Zacharias]

"David Platt" wrote in message
news
In article ,
wrote:

In both circumstances, will occasionally just stop playing disc
entirely, sometimes midway through a song.

Steps I've taken so far:

1. Made sure any CD I put in there is mint clean.

2. Used a brush-style CD player lens cleaner disc according to lens
cleaner instructions.

Both steps have reduced behaviors in A & B, but not elminated them.

What else can I do to eliminate these problems, even under hood?

Also: Are these symptoms of read-head laser alignment, or of logic
control?

These could be symptoms of a read-head "wear-out". The laser diodes
do suffer with age - the laser output decreases, and the reflected
signal seen by the photodiode has a lower and lower signal level.
This causes both an increase in the error rate of the signal, and
problems in tracking (the track-following servo doesn't have enough
signal to work correctly).

A *very* short-term fix which sometimes helps (or at least can help
diagnose that this is the problem) is to tweak a trimpot in the laser
circuit which boosts its output. It's short-term because the
increased current though the laser accelerates its aging... you're on
a "slippery slope" to laser failure. The only long-term fix is to
replace the laser (which is commonly part of a larger optical assembly
that must be replaced as a unit) and then realign.

These could be symptoms of dust or dirt or tar in the optical path
(e.g. lens) which your "cleaning disc" hasn't removed... these discs
often don't work very well, and (depending on how the brush works) can
knock the lens out of alignment and make matters worse. A careful
manual cleaning of the lens (and, in some players, of a small mirror
located between the lens and the laser/photodiode) with a soft-bristle
brush sometimes does better. Some people report good results using a
very small amount of a liquid cleaner (either electronics-grade
isopropyl alcohol, or the sort of liquid cleaner used for
polycarbonate eyeglass lenses) - moisten a brush, wipe the lens
gently, then wipe equally gently with soft lint-free eyeclass-lens
cleaning tissue.

If you or anyone else smokes around your CD player, it's likely that
some tobacco-smoke "tar" has built up on the lens (and/or mirror if
one is present). This stuff is very difficult to remove, and if the
lens is impaired by it you may have no choice other than to replace
the whole optical assembly.

These could also be symptoms of tracking problems due to gunked-up
"rails". CD players have two different mechanisms for tracking the
groove - the lens itself is moved (within the optical sled) to track
small positional changes, and the whole sled is moved on linear or
semicircular "rails" to make larger adjustments. If dust builds up on
the rails, or if the lubrication dries out or turns gummy, the sled
won't move smoothly and the CD player can lose its ability to track
the disc. This can often be remedied by cleaning the rails (wiping
them with a Q-tip moistened in electronics-grade isopropanol) and then
relubricating with a small amount of the right lubricant. Sewing-
machine oil, watchmaker's oil, instrumentation oil are all good
choices - they're light, low-viscosity, non-drying oils which have no
solvents. Tri-Flo is a Teflon-bearing oil which also can work well.
Don't use WD-40 or Liquid Wrench.




Pickup flat wire.

part number 1-575-001-11.

Common problem with models using the the KSS-240 pickup.

Mark Z.

[[email protected]]

Gave in and purchased a used Sony CDP-C715(immediate successor to the C705)..


Aside from a HIDEOUS Limp Biskit sticker affixed to the front of the carousel tray by whoever previously owned it, and a few minor scratches, this player is rock solid!


It has everything the 705 did, including the variable output controlled by the headphone jack.(I promptly calibrated it to 1V peak with a 1Khz full scale sine from my test CD - and it sounds GREAT!) The seller thoughtfully threw in it's remote control - something one rarely sees when buying *any* electronics second-hand.


With some gentle shots of compressed air under the hood I got most of the dust out of this thing.


Additionally, the 715 has half a dozen 'EQ' settings including one for "Live Room"(which I'll try for a while as my listening room has bare polished hardwood floors and ****loads of windows - lol!), and a Reverb knob.


Externally, this C715 *looks* as though it's had a more rugged life than my C705 changer, but compared to it this 715 seems almost impossible to make skip or 'quit', as did the 705. The sound is also fuller and not as thin-sounding as the 705, even with the eq thingie set to Flat/off.


Before purchasing the C715 I did as suggested and cleaned the C705's lens. The problems persisted(skipping, freezing, stopping altogether), so it was time. That's what you get for $8 in a thrift shop. smh!


Aside: I have a Sony C545 upstairs(no variable outs), cost me $40 used, and has yet to exhibit any such misbehavior. I listen to it via Grado headphones and love it. So it's true: You get what you pay for in this world!


For around $70/shipping, the C715 was still a bargain, and is a gem to listen on!

[[email protected]]

On Friday, June 6, 2014 8:22:17 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Gave in and purchased a used Sony CDP-C715(immediate successor to the C705).





Aside from a HIDEOUS Limp Biskit sticker affixed to the front of the carousel tray by whoever previously owned it, and a few minor scratches, this player is rock solid!





It has everything the 705 did, including the variable output controlled by the headphone jack.(I promptly calibrated it to 1V peak with a 1Khz full scale sine from my test CD - and it sounds GREAT!) The seller thoughtfully threw in it's remote control - something one rarely sees when buying *any* electronics second-hand.





With some gentle shots of compressed air under the hood I got most of the dust out of this thing.





Additionally, the 715 has half a dozen 'EQ' settings including one for "Live Room"(which I'll try for a while as my listening room has bare polished hardwood floors and ****loads of windows - lol!), and a Reverb knob.





Externally, this C715 *looks* as though it's had a more rugged life than my C705 changer, but compared to it this 715 seems almost impossible to make skip or 'quit', as did the 705. The sound is also fuller and not as thin-sounding as the 705, even with the eq thingie set to Flat/off.





Before purchasing the C715 I did as suggested and cleaned the C705's lens.. The problems persisted(skipping, freezing, stopping altogether), so it was time. That's what you get for $8 in a thrift shop. smh!





Aside: I have a Sony C545 upstairs(no variable outs), cost me $40 used, and has yet to exhibit any such misbehavior. I listen to it via Grado headphones and love it. So it's true: You get what you pay for in this world!





For around $70/shipping, the C715 was still a bargain, and is a gem to listen on!
_______________

UPDATE:

You know how your mind sometimes plays tricks on you: You think you see or hear something but you didn't? Or did you?

Sure enough, this C715 is exhibiting pretty consistent "micro-skips", for lack of better term.

IEsing to yourself)

It's good to be alive, to be alive, it's good to be alive..
It's good to be alive, tobe alive, it's good to be alive..
It's good to be alive, to be alive, it's good to be alive..
It's good be alive, to be alive, it's good to be alive..

At first I thought it was someone walking by the stereo rack, or a cat lounging on top of the turntable lid(topmost component) but no: No cats in sight, and the wife is in the kitchen, side porch, or at work.

Oh well, me and my antique CD players, guess that's what I get.

I will say though, these Harrison Labs 12dB pads I placed on the CD in of my receiver have translated into lush, silky sound, with solid bottoms and tops.

Micro-skips be damned!

[geoff]

On 4/08/2014 4:26 a.m., wrote:
On Friday, June 6, 2014 8:22:17 AM UTC-4, wrote:


At first I thought it was someone walking by the stereo rack, or a cat lounging on top of the turntable lid(topmost component) but no: No cats in sight, and the wife is in the kitchen, side porch, or at work.

Oh well, me and my antique CD players, guess that's what I get.

I will say though, these Harrison Labs 12dB pads I placed on the CD in of my receiver have translated into lush, silky sound, with solid bottoms and tops.

Micro-skips be damned!



Naa - it's just the necessary(?) looser tolerances or extra mechanicals
in carousel players mean they are pretty much all crappy, in my experience.

Yes, if you don't overload your inputs, things generally sound better.

geoff