Distortion from CD Player?, Please help.

VIKRAM PAUL

New Member
Hi Guys,

Recently i got a vintage cd player and tuner(Grundig Fine Arts CD9000 and T9000, its unused kept in Grundig factory sealed( Old Stock) with company stamp Germany. I got it for good deal around 300 euros both.

When i received i was like WTH.. two vintage beauties with those shiny looks.



1st i tried playing the tuner 100 % perfectly working with good sound.
2nd i tried the cd player, i was shocked to see it was not reading any cd
See the attached the video Error was like ‘DISC’




I contacted the seller they were sure the cd player worked very well b4 packing.
Even they were confused , later they suggested to open the top cover of the cd player
and check the alignment if possible set the laser current and bias till it reads.


Personally i never touched any cd player or had repair knowledge.
I showed this to my friend who had bit knowledge of cd player , when he opened the box he was shocked to see the board cos it looked so new untouched. he was amazed how they preserved the 30 year old cd player without any dust. later even he was scared to touch it.

I just left the cd player on with cd in , like after 2 hours it showed me the tracks and i pressed play
It was like WOOOOOOOO….W and sounded awesome.
See the attached video

I played nearly 3 to 4 cds without any glitch. later i noticed that few cds which i played before had

distortion sound from speaker not from cd player, i notice such sounds random tracks and or some times played smoothly. I also confirmed the distortion is not from amplifier or interconnects or speaker cause i used headphones directly from cd player.

See the attached video.


I don’t use CDR only original which are new and well recorded. friend said it must be laser problem or dying . Seller says if its laser problem it won’t read at all or it would say ‘NO DISC’ or it won’t spin.

Anyways seller felt bad and refunded me 200 euros which made me feel that he never intended to cheat or fool me.

Do you guys have any idea how to solve this , who is the culprit. Laser, or any capacitor or alignment????
 
That’s called breaking in a new CD player....

Not everyone believes in the necessity of breaking in a new CD player and many have returned a new player because of their belief. I never turn my CD player off because of how much better it sounds if I don’t.

In a week it will sound even better....so just leave it on and don’t shut it off. Plus, every time you turn it on and off it goes back and forth from being hot to cold which in the long run....year after year making the circuits brittle degrading the sound quality.
 
That’s called breaking in a new CD player....

Not everyone believes in the necessity of breaking in a new CD player and many have returned a new player because of their belief. I never turn my CD player off because of how much better it sounds if I don’t.

In a week it will sound even better....so just leave it on and don’t shut it off. Plus, every time you turn it on and off it goes back and forth from being hot to cold which in the long run....year after year making the circuits brittle degrading the sound quality.


you mean to say the distortion will go away if i keep it on or burn in ?
 
you mean to say the distortion will go away if i keep it on or burn in ?

Yep....

Time is on your side !!

It’s just new circuits breaking in.....

Optional performance of the circuits requires a certain temperature after breakin also and why I never shut my CD player off.
 
Yep....

Time is on your side !!

It’s just new circuits breaking in.....

Optional performance of the circuits requires a certain temperature after breakin also and why I never shut my CD player off.


Ok can i continuously keep playing the cd even if its distorting sound ? or play when its normal sounding or just keep it on for 1 week and then play ?
 
Ok can i continuously keep playing the cd even if its distorting sound ? or play when its normal sounding or just keep it on for 1 week and then play ?

Just leave your CD player on while playing a CD and use the repeat function for the CD to continually play. That is if you have that function...
 
That’s called broken. Sounds like read errors are causing the muting concealment to kick in. May get better with some use (geled lube, reforming caps), may get worse, or may get better for a little while before it dies.

Upping the current can get a tired laser working for a very short while until the excess current burns it out. Disturbing advise.
 
Being a Grundig it will have blue Philips electrolytic capacitors in it. These age badly, they need to be replaced. When old and leaky the cause distortion and tracking problems.

yeah one of the technician said the same it may be capacitor problem but he asked to use it for 1 week continues to see if it solves by own if not we need ot change it .
 
You may be able to fix this with a good lens cleaner.. and a minor tracking adjustment.

YouTube the procedure.. it really is quite easy to do! :thumbsup:
 
Hello.

Nice catch, this beautiful Grundig !

They were introduced in the market back in 1987 or so. That's almost a 30 years old shelf life without been switched on. So, as steerpike2 has said, it's most probably a capacitor related problem, such as leakage.

Anyway, has the problem being fixed ?
 
Hello.

Nice catch, this beautiful Grundig !

They were introduced in the market back in 1987 or so. That's almost a 30 years old shelf life without been switched on. So, as steerpike2 has said, it's most probably a capacitor related problem, such as leakage.

Anyway, has the problem being fixed ?
Nope :(
 
Hi Vikram Paul. My thoughts for you fwiw:

If the player is really unused then I would discount the laser pickup as failing with one exception. That would be if there are any electrolytic capacitors mounted directly to the pickup. They would be suspect.

All of the electrolytic capacitors are suspect. If the player was mine I would replace them all because they will have gone bad sitting unused for 32 years. Do a forum search on "reforming capacitors". Here are 2 of many threads that discuss this:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/new-project-reforming-old-capacitors.805305/
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....vg-with-no-power-will-they-not-reform.661201/

The lubricant in the traverse mechanism will most likely be dried out and sticky. The entire mech needs to be cleaned and re-lubed.

But(!), before you listen to me or anyone else I highly suggest asking dr*audio. He is a well respected and trusted member with a long running (and extremely useful) thread "Troubleshooting CD Players". Post a question there and get an expert answer.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/troubleshooting-cd-players.440522/

Cheers,
James
 
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