[Bill A.]

Hello all -

Recently a friend of mine gave me a 4 year old Marantz CDR 631,
lightly used during his ownership. He had noted that on some media,
the player would start clicking and would stop about 20 minutes into
playing a CDR and on rare occasions, commercial CD's. Further, on
burning CDR's (using good Taiyo Yuden stock) the unit would
intermittently not record.

I was going to have the deck refurbished at Superscope in Batavia, IL
- an authorized Marantz shop for the Professional series such as this.
When I called them, a service rep said that the optical drive for the
unit (a Phillips assembly) is no longer available and they could not
repair it.

Does anyone know a repair facility that can work on the CDR 631? Or is
the price so prohibitive (or the Phillips drive so unreliable) that it
is not worth the time and effort? (I was planning on using this unit
to digitize some LP's in my collection and occasionally to take down
radio broadcasts for my own use).

Assistance or opinions from this group are most welcome.

- Bill

[Scott Dorsey]

Bill A. wrote:

Recently a friend of mine gave me a 4 year old Marantz CDR 631,
lightly used during his ownership. He had noted that on some media,
the player would start clicking and would stop about 20 minutes into
playing a CDR and on rare occasions, commercial CD's. Further, on
burning CDR's (using good Taiyo Yuden stock) the unit would
intermittently not record.

Sounds like an alignment issue.

I was going to have the deck refurbished at Superscope in Batavia, IL
- an authorized Marantz shop for the Professional series such as this.
When I called them, a service rep said that the optical drive for the
unit (a Phillips assembly) is no longer available and they could not
repair it.

Did they make ANY attempt at diagnosis?

Does anyone know a repair facility that can work on the CDR 631? Or is
the price so prohibitive (or the Phillips drive so unreliable) that it
is not worth the time and effort? (I was planning on using this unit
to digitize some LP's in my collection and occasionally to take down
radio broadcasts for my own use).

I would suggest asking NXT Technology and if they come up dry, Eddie
Ciletti at Tangible Technology. There's no reason to replace the whole
optical drive, especially if it just needs cleaning and alignment.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Bill A.]

Hi Scott -

Thanks much for the info. They do not have the unit, I was describing
the symptoms over the phone to the rep. He mentioned that the phillips
drive was, in essence, a sealed unit, so if the drive needed any
repair or replacement parts, it was non-starter. (The website also
specifically excludes this and similar Marantz CDR units that have the
drive)

I will contact the other two businesses you mentioned next week.
((Living in Chicago, I could have delivered the deck to the Superscope
center myself, it is a pleasant ride!)

Again, thank you for the response.

- Bill

[Scott Dorsey]

Bill A. wrote:

Thanks much for the info. They do not have the unit, I was describing
the symptoms over the phone to the rep. He mentioned that the phillips
drive was, in essence, a sealed unit, so if the drive needed any
repair or replacement parts, it was non-starter. (The website also
specifically excludes this and similar Marantz CDR units that have the
drive)

Talk to one of his techs. It's true that you can't get any parts for
it other than possibly the laser assembly, but odds are that just doing
the cleaning and lube and alignment will fix the thing. If it DOES need
parts, well, any other tech will be in the same boat.

You have just discovered the joys of the consumer electronics world
taking over the pro audio world.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Bill A.]

"You have just discovered the joys of the consumer electronics world
taking over the pro audio world. "

This is a joy I can do without! :-)

Appreciate your comments, Scott.