Retro Cd player help please

DannyW · 2 Jul 2015 at 21:17

Hi guys I have a Technics SL-P 777 from (year 1989) and as a back up player/room 2 I have a Yamaha cdx596 pro-bit (from 1999)

If I play Cd's with even light tiny scratches the players skip a bit, the Yamaha basically doesn't play... Technics skips a tiny bit (bearable)

My car, PS3 and Blu-ray player play fine

What's going on here? do the players have weak lasers? could this be resolved by turning the gain up on the laser?

Is it just time to give up on retro my hi-fi stuff :mad:

lucid · 2 Jul 2015 at 23:15

Very few things last forever, but I don't see that as a valid reason to abandon good hi-fi. Just replace the players with something more modern. If you have cleaned each laser lens properly with a ctton bud and isopropyl alcohol then the next stage is trying the gain, but that means that the laser diode emissions are falling off because of use. Sooner or later the lasers will fail.

flame696 · 2 Jul 2015 at 23:40

It could be that the lens on both players are dirty so the just need a clean

MagicBoy · 2 Jul 2015 at 23:54

Other possibility is the mech needs lubricating. I had an old Marantz that skipped intermittently - the factory grease had dried up after 10+ years and the gritty grease has affecting the tracking. Cleaned it up and replaced with silcone grease and it was fighting fit again.

tom_nieto · 3 Jul 2015 at 22:34

Clean the lens and if no joy, a touch of oil on the mechanism. Definitely worth saving a quality piece of hifi if you can! I love my 15 year old player, although it doesn't get much use these days which is a shame.

DannyW · 6 Jul 2015 at 18:07

Today changed the laser on the Yamaha
Will play all my battered old CDs now fine

Guess the technics is goosed or dying... And can't find a replacement laser for it