Single Disc CD players

[PWR RYD]

Hi Paul,

Check out your local Craigslist. I expanded my search area a bit and saw a Sony DVD/CD player in Elk Grove for $15 (missing remote), another Sony in St. Charles, etc. Also check out the local pawn shops. I have a Sony single disc CD player from circa 1995ish that I found in a pawn shop for $20 w/remote. It works perfectly and sounds amazing. $20!!! I can't take my family to McDonalds for dinner for $20.

Best of luck

Craig

[Wolf]

If you can find an old Pioneer filer type cd changer for free/cheap, you might be able to fix it easily. The tracking was simple to realign for me. Still works today, and that was about 18 years ago.

Wolf

[oldloder]

I have an early 90's Marantz CD-63 ... belt squeals when it opens and closes but it's somehow endearing to me probably cuz I squeak and grunt getting going. It sounds great, loads right up and there is an actual display that tells track/timing info and a remote that makes sense. I would think you could find a used something similar for $100 or less on craigslist/FB marketplace or a pawn shop as has been suggested ... I'm with you, Paul ... worthy pursuit especially for short money these days.

[jhollander]

Do you have an external DAC? I use a cheap sony bluray player as a transport with coax out to a bifrost 2. Sounds good to me.

Same, cheap Sony Blu-ray to receiver or emo DAC (I have 2 Blu-rays). Omni mic CD runs in the same Blu-ray.

[JimHRB]

The hot budget priced item a few years ago was the Onkyo C-7030. Discontinued. I bought one, works fine. Quite adequate transport. Some used on Ebay for $200, and several from Japan for much more. Phono and digital out, IIRC.

Yes, I got one when when they were readiily available. I think I paid about $140. Nice budget CD player. Too bad NLA. Can't believe some of the asking prices now.

[Paul Carmody]

Strange update. While idly googling, I found that the easiest fix to CD/DVD trays not opening is that the belt wears out. I hadn't thought to look at the belt--mostly because it's hidden under the tray Looking at the belt on its own, I couldn't honestly tell. It wasn't super-tight, but I dunno, is it supposed to be?

Anyway, I saw people claiming you could often replace the belt by going to the hardware store and getting a similar-sized (or slightly smaller-sized) o-ring from the plumbing department. So I brought my little belt with me, and compared it to all the various sizes at the hardware store. I found one that seemed slightly smaller than the current one. For 79 cents, it seemed worth a shot.

I snapped the new belt on the motor + gear, and holy cow! It actually fixed it perfectly. Like I forgot it used to work this well!

So that fixed the "functional" problem I was having with my player. But the transport is still noisier than I would like. I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with the transport; I think it's just a standard amount of vibration we got used to with dvd players back in the day. Oh well, at least I have a fun new "trick" I can use if I decide to get adventurous and pick up some older players at a thrift shop.

[Carbon13]

Nice hack Paul!! Love those creative fixes.

[Threadbare]

If I was in the market for a single disc player I'd keep eyes peeled for a Sony from the ES range. But then I'm a Sony addict. Most of my audio system is Sony from the late 80's that teams up with my Tarkus boxes very well.

[rpb]

I have a Sony Blu-ray / streaming player. I think it's a 6700 model. It's quick, if you are not playing it along with a video monitor.. It has USB connections for an input. It has a coax type digital out. If you are using a video monitor, it will show track numbers, and a progress bar showing time of the track. Does not show names. If you have music on a usb drive, it shows folders. I've not tried music on the USB, only video.

[Paul Carmody]

Here's a fun update. Not long after I first posted this thread, a kind Forum Member offered to sell me a nice Marantz single-disc unit for a good price. Not going to say who, or which model Marantz. The point is that he was able to help me satiate my need to get back so spinning random CDs off the shelf. I hooked it up to my amp, and all is good. So that's where the story COULD HAVE ended....

Now, remember back when I mentioned how proud I was when I was able to bring my old failing DVD player back to life with a simple O-ring? I decided to take some of my newfound confidence to the Goodwill store to see if anything looked like it needed rescuing. Hmm... some random Sonys and Panasonics, a few really beat-up Denons. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary. Then on another shelf there was an Adcom 5-disc changer. A ha! Now this WAS interesting! It looked kinda dirty--maybe a bit rusty around one of the RCA jacks. But for $20, I decided it was worth a gamble.

I plugged the Adcom in, and ... nothing. No lights, no nothing. Oh well, might as well crack open the case and see what's inside. Well, with the top off, I could hear a faint transformer hum. I guess that was a good sign; it was getting mains power--just nothing past that. Maybe a fuse? I looked around and saw that it was actually missing 6 fuses! Also missing a belt. Clearly I was not the first person to go venturing into here.

I ordered a bunch of 500 mA fuses (thankfully the amperage was written on the PCB), and found an O-ring about the right size to replace the missing belt. I still had serious doubts as to whether this was going to be enough to have a working player, but it was a start. Plus, I was having fun.

So the fuses came, and I popped all 6 in their places, snapped the O-ring on the pulleys, and plugged it in. And holy crap, it all lit up! So many pretty lights on this thing! I put a CD in, and it tried to read it, but tended to skip ahead a lot. Hm... it was still not ready for primetime, but it was almost starting to act like a real CD player. I looked up the Service Manual for the Adcom, and it has a specific process you're supposed to do to fix the tracking and focus--but it requires a special test CD and an oscilloscope AND a frequency counter. None of which I have.

So I was basically left to give it an "Italian tune up," in other words, drive it hard and physically push the transport around until it behaved better. And it DID! The more CDs I feed it, the less it's skipping. It's not perfect; some CDs don't skip at all, but others have some tracks it has trouble with--I dunno, maybe I'll try idly playing with those adjustment knobs if I'm feeling daring.

It's so silly, but this player is so enjoyable to use. Like I said, there are so many colorful lights--the buttons have their own internal lights. But the real clincher is that every button press, whether it's play, stop, pause, FFWD, etc makes a satisfying "click" as a relay at the back of the unit switches ... "something." I don't know. I don't know what it's switching, but it's fun as hell every time I press a button and it does it. At this point, I still don't have a remote for the player, but for once in my life I don't care. I just want to go up and press the front panel buttons! Oh yeah, and just to get it out of the way, the DACs sound good. I mean, if it sounded like crap, I probably would have stopped earlier on.

Still got some work to do on it until it's truly what would be considered "reliable" by normal-people standards. Also, it has that "Goodwill smell," and it's so pungent it almost gives me a headache. Maybe I can air it out in the garage for a while. And sure, I could buy a perfectly working one off eBay for probably $150 shipped. But where's the fun in that!?!

[jhollander]

Be careful, colored lights can hypnotize.