CD Player lenses

[french frank]

I assume the lens on my hi-fi needs cleaning as my discs have started jumping. Is this a job for a professional or are there easy ways which are also recommendable (ordinary cleaning discs apparently aren't)?

[Dave2002]

Cleaning discs (the ones with the brushes on a CD) sometimes work, but won't get serious gunge off the lenses.

One thing you could try is tipping the unit up (say at least 45 degrees) - though I wouldn't recommend banging it hard or anything like that (a procedure which I did recently with a malfeasant ink jet printer) as it's possible that the read out head could work loose or become misaligned - I had that happen once - the the player was already playing up.

I once bought a CD player as a present for my father, but thought to test it first. It was hopeless, but then I raised it up a bit - tipped it - and suddently it started working well. I think a bit of packing material got in the works, and my procedure shifted it. After that it was superb, and on some CDs significantly better sounding than my own player at the time.

Otherwise, if it's a player you like, you could try taking it to a repair shop - some are able to fix these things - and I did have someone replace internal parts (arm, laser) in a cheap player years ago, which was worth it at the time. Nowadays though unless the player you have is very good and/or expensive it may be cheaper to consider buying a new one. Good ones are still expensive, but "acceptable" ones are quite cheap I think.

I believe that at present many units actually have DVD drives internally, as there is a much larger market - and they can be cheaply mass produced.

[french frank]

Thanks , Dave2k+2

I've located a local repair centre but I may pay them a visit first and ask as otherwise it would be a bus journey and then carting the machine in a rucksack for three quarters of a mile. It would be far easier to buy a new one, though lunatic if the repair is easy, cheap and satisfactory.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There may be another reason. Could it be condensation? I've had problems with this in the past, with some nasty loud crackles that were apparently caused by moisture on the lens. Since I bought my current piano, I've a had a dehumidifier in the house, and the CD player has been fine.

[french frank]

There may be another reason. Could it be condensation?

Not sure about condensation. My house is well-ventilated (aka draughty ) and I thought it was more likely to be dust since it's in the same room as my woodburner.

It was a cheap system but does have a minidisc player. I haven't actually played any of my many off-air recordings (mainly of Drama on 3) for years, but … I might want to.

[Serial_Apologist]

Having experienced tracking problems almost from the time I'd bought the player some 20 years ago, I first opened it up - ignoring the stick on notice on the outside telling you not to! - having first unplugged at the mains. Undoing the cross-headed screws was quite a job - clearly they had screwed in tight with the intention of being undone only with an authorised tool, and I had to use my best Phillips screwdriver to get them undone. Once open, this allowed me to observe the movement of the components, and, with a pair of rubber gloves on, having cleaned the lense with an ear bud soaked in soapy warm water then refreshed, put the machine together again. Some improvement was noticed though a number of CDs were still registering "no disc". I had noticed a screechy sound coming from some part of the motor, and so, judging this to be coming from the seating underneath the flywheel applied a tiny drop of high quality oil at the base of the spindle. This solved the problem, which in the two years since has only repeated very occasionally, without the friction noise, and been corrected by cleaning the lense as described.

[alywin]

Otherwise, if it's a player you like, you could try taking it to a repair shop - some are able to fix these things - and I did have someone replace internal parts (arm, laser) in a cheap player years ago, which was worth it at the time.

What's a repair shop?

Seriously, do they still exist? I need a new laser assembly.

[pastoralguy]

What's a repair shop?

Seriously, do they still exist? I need a new laser assembly.

I had a Meridian CD player which, in its day, had been the reference model. I bought it second hand from someone who had used it extensively and then I used it daily for a number of years until, inevitably, it needed a service due to discs skipping/ mis-tracking. Alas, Boothroyd-Stuart, the parent company, were no longer interested in servicing 'vintage' equipment. I had a telephone conversation with a very helpful, ( and slightly embarrassed!), engineer who told me they had run out of parts for these old machines. He did suggest a firm who might help who, when I contacted them, had a waiting list of 6 months. I listed it on eBay, honestly describing the problems, and sold it for more than I'd paid for it originally!

I was vexed 'cause I really loved that machine although I realised that technology had moved on. So I bought a new Quad CD player which didn't have the sheer quality of build of the Meridian but sounded better.

[french frank]

What's a repair shop?

Seriously, do they still exist? I need a new laser assembly.

http://electrofix.com/service.HTM

That's where I was planning to go

[Serial_Apologist]

What's a repair shop?

Seriously, do they still exist? I need a new laser assembly.

The hippy guy who runs a repair joint out of a shed behind a shop on West Norwood high street did a great overnight job on a hi-fi I discovered dumped in woodland for a tenner, 6 years ago. Last year I popped in to ask after him and he said he still did repair jobs, but I noticed he'd had his hair cut, which I interpreted as not a good indicator...

[pastoralguy]

... on a hi-fi I discovered dumped in woodland...:

You wouldn't like to check back and see if there's any Quad equipment out there...?!

Actually, I found a tea tray that had been abandoned at our local bus stop today. It has a cat theme and was in nice condition so it's in the dish washer as I write...

[johnb]

Does your CD player use a conventional tray that slides in and out or do you feed the CDs in through a slot?

If it is a tray mechanism I would first try a CD Lens Cleaner disc. They work by gently brushing the the lens with clumps of fine "hairs" as the CD plays. The one I have had for decades also came with a bottle of fluid (you put a drop of the fluid on one specific clump of hairs).

CD lens cleaner discs would probably be less suitable for slot loading players as the cleaning "hairs" would get flattened by the roller mechanism that pulls the CD in and then ejects it.

[french frank]

Yes, it is a tray. I will try that (I thought I read that people didn't recommend them but as long as they don't damage the CDs afterwards, I can live with getting a new CD Player! Thanks

In fact, now that neither of my computers has a slot/CD drive, I might just get a separate portable CD player.

Does your CD player use a conventional tray that slides in and out or do you feed the CDs in through a slot?

If it is a tray mechanism I would first try a CD Lens Cleaner disc. They work by gently brushing the the lens with clumps of fine "hairs" as the CD plays. The one I have had for decades also came with a bottle of fluid (you put a drop of the fluid on one specific clump of hairs).

CD lens cleaner discs would probably be less suitable for slot loading players as the cleaning "hairs" would get flattened by the roller mechanism that pulls the CD in and then ejects it.

[Bryn]

Go on, take the bull by the horns, dismantle the CD drive and clean the lens with a cotton bud dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Then put it all back together again. Simples!

[Serial_Apologist]

Go on, take the bull by the horns, dismantle the CD drive and clean the lens with a cotton bud dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Then put it all back together again. Simples!

Exactly!!! You might only need to remove the housing to expose the laser "eye", remembering of course to wear rubber gloves, as I soon found out! Since doing the job myself (see above) I only ever get the occasional whip crack sound when laser meets scratch, no more track jumping or refusal to play - and that's not just in the Benjamin Britten works!