Want to see what's inside a Rega Planet CDP? Just repaired mine, and took pictures:
- Thread starter Mr. Lin
- Start date
Descartridge
Stereos been berry, berry good to me!
dim display
Thanks Mr. Lin,
Can anything be done to brighten the display?
I love mine using a DAC.
Thanks Mr. Lin,
Can anything be done to brighten the display?
I love mine using a DAC.
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Do you have the remote for yours? On the remote there's a button labeled "Display," and there are three settings: The default one is the brightest, the second turns off the display, the third turns it back on but it's dimmer than the first setting. You just press the display button to toggle through the settings. Perhaps you bought yours second-hand w/o a remote, and the previous owner left it on the dim setting? Mine's pretty much as bright as I can imagine it needing to be.
And there's always the possibility something's wrong with the display itself, causing it to be dimmer than it should be.
Which DAC are you using with your Planet? Several times I've come across comments on the internet claiming the Planet makes a poor transport, but I just don't understand why that would possibly be the case. I don't have a standalone DAC to try it out for myself, nor do I have a CD player with a "digital in" option.
EDIT: I just noticed your signature lists your system. So is that SL3 a PS Audio DAC?
That is very helpful, thanks Celt. I was going to forget about replacing the caps in the power supply (recommended by some authors of Planet modification guides on the internet), but I guess it wouldn't cost too much to replace some electrolytic caps. They all looked ok when I was in there (I did check everything quickly by eye), but it's old, so of course any one of them could go at any minute - or start to, at least.
Geez, between disreputable electrolytic caps and failing diodes, Rega sure made some unfortunate choices when picking electronics parts suppliers during those years. :scratch2:
thedelihaus
Nocturnal transmissions
sounds like the Planet would be well suited for a sleepy, bedroom-type application.
Nice write-up!
Nice write-up!
uxwbill
Lurking in the Shadows
I feel kinda bad about asking you to crack it open again, as I sure wouldn't want it to become damaged in the process...not after you put the effort into fixing it! Thanks for the remote pictures. It reminds me a little of the remote I have for a Philips TV set.
I'm surprised to say the least, though I am eternally curious about almost everything. I can't see the tube clearly enough, nor do I have enough experience to guess about the brand and type.Oddly, you're the first person to ask. The idea just popped into my head. Anyone noticed which brand of tube it is yet?
I'll bet you can guess my next question...is there a high resolution original? As with your picture of the turntable that was once your avatar, I think that would make great wallpaper for a computer desktop!
I hope the rooster enjoyed his find when he got it home! :yes:
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Well don' worry about that because I'm going to be opening it back up soon anyway, and I'm very careful. Since I was able to take it all apart, pull out, and push back in the ribbon cables inside, without breaking anything, opening it up should be a piece of cake.
I'd like to replace a bunch of the electrolytics in the Planet, and there's a web page that lists in detail all the ones that should be considered for replacement, and where they are inside. Wouldn't be difficult at all, but I've been lazy about writing it all down and looking for legit places to buy the higher-quality electrolytic caps from. Obviously I'm not going to go to the infamous auction site for that, since there are so many reports of fakes.
I do have a high resolution original, then a re-sized one for AK, which is still pretty big. There's no reason why anyone who's not a tube nut to know which tube is in my signature picture - but it's a 12AT7 from France that was manufactured by Amperex, with the famous "Bugle Boy" logo on it, which is a picture of a cartoon tube with a face blowing a bugle.
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Since I've had more time to spend with the Planet over the last few days, something I'd forgotten about that really annoys me with this player came up again, and that is the magnet puck design. Naim, for example, does this very well; there's simply a magnetic puck with a plastic top that you put on the CD after putting the CD on the spindle, and the puck snaps right into place.
But the Planet (and keep in mind they moved on to a reportedly better design for this after the Planet) has a little ring magnet that you have to manually attach to a plastic spindle, the top of which is the black circle you can see on the clear plexi-glass window. When you close the lid, the magnetic puck makes contact with the magnetic part of the spindle, thus activating the CD player, which reads the disc (slowly, I might add). The entire black spindle spins with the puck and CD, and if you don't have the metal puck snapped onto the plastic spindle *just* right, best case scenario is that it wobbles and looks rather disconcerting, and often it either can't read the CD, or there's choppy distortion when you start playing the CD - I believe that's from read errors. I've had to readjust the magnet and plastic spindle many times, and it's very aggravating. Really, a half-baked design IMO.
I also wonder how much life the transport has left in it. Fortunately (unless something has recently changed) they can still be purchased cheaply.
But the Planet (and keep in mind they moved on to a reportedly better design for this after the Planet) has a little ring magnet that you have to manually attach to a plastic spindle, the top of which is the black circle you can see on the clear plexi-glass window. When you close the lid, the magnetic puck makes contact with the magnetic part of the spindle, thus activating the CD player, which reads the disc (slowly, I might add). The entire black spindle spins with the puck and CD, and if you don't have the metal puck snapped onto the plastic spindle *just* right, best case scenario is that it wobbles and looks rather disconcerting, and often it either can't read the CD, or there's choppy distortion when you start playing the CD - I believe that's from read errors. I've had to readjust the magnet and plastic spindle many times, and it's very aggravating. Really, a half-baked design IMO.
I also wonder how much life the transport has left in it. Fortunately (unless something has recently changed) they can still be purchased cheaply.
boyerd001
Active Member
I thought the spindle/puck assembly was supposed to be glued into a precise alignment from the factory?? Why do you have to adjust their alignment? With my Jupiter, the puck/spindle is aligned as perfectly as you could want (glued into alignment - couldn't change it without breaking something) - absolutely no wobble that I can discern. The Jupiter does have a stainless steel disc/weight at the top of the spindle assembly versus the plastic/hard rubber disc/weight piece in the original planet/planet 2000.
As to the Apollo/Saturn's "improved" approach to disc holding/alignment with the "ball chuck", it really bothers me that I have to "bend" the CD to remove it every time I change discs. I personally like the magnetic puck approach to disc alignment/securing much better - look at the Studer A730/D730 (big, big bucks) for further proof of the concept.
Dale
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Hi Dale, didn't see this until just today. As far as I know, the original Planet doesn't have the same spindle setup as the Jupiter. The metal puck attaches to the spindle and black plastic circle that goes through the clear plastic part of the lid. I don't think the puck was ever glued to the spindle, because, as far as I know, it's supposed to be removed when the CD player is shipped. Looking at the point where the puck attaches to the plastic spindle, there doesn't seem to be any dried glue or anything else indicating it was broken off in the past.
Bottom line - unless I'm wrong it is it supposed to be glued on - it was a problematic and less than ideal design, which is why you don't see it on any of their proceeding CD player models.
I'm starting to think perhaps the transport in this thing is going, because before, even if I didn't have the puck fitted to the plastic spindle perfectly evenly, it still played. And now, it either won't, or it sounds choppy and screwed up (data reading errors). Honestly, I've gotten so many new CDs recently, after the issues I just described started with the Planet, I put it away and I've been using my Naim. Haven't given up on the Planet, but I want to listen to music right now, not develop a migraine and high blood pressure.
EDIT: Btw, the puck in my Planet is not plastic or rubber, it's metal, the whole thing is a magnetic metal ring.
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
I think Rega could learn a lot about great transport design from Naim.
That thing is built like a tank, and also uses a magnetic puck, but works perfectly every time, period.
boyerd001
Active Member
If you're getting "disc read errors" when playing a CD with the Planet you might want to replace the short (~65mm) 16 pin FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) that attaches the Laser Head to the Daughter PCB on the underside of the CD Transport Assembly (I'm guessing its "specs").
I mentioned this problem in an earlier thread about repairing my Jupiter 2000 - it exhibited all the classic "laser failure" traits but was instead the repeated flexing of this short cable as the disc was read during playback that was causing it to fail with intermittent open internal connections. Short FFCs are a known failure area in equipment that use them if repeated flexing occurs during their operation. In the Apollo and Saturn, the Sanyo laser mechanism contains NO daughter PCB and hence the laser FFC to main PCB is something in the neighborhood of 125-150mm long (basically hangs straight down instead of curved into a "U" shape) before it attaches to the main PCB.
I bought the Jupiter's FFC on eBay (bit expensive, but he'll take -20% offers) from:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FLAT-FLEX-C...379?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ddb6c173
and it was an EXACT replacement. You have a different Sony laser in the original Planet than that in the Planet 2000/Jupiter 2000, so you'll have to verify the FFC's pin count and pitch plus total cable length.
Dale
I mentioned this problem in an earlier thread about repairing my Jupiter 2000 - it exhibited all the classic "laser failure" traits but was instead the repeated flexing of this short cable as the disc was read during playback that was causing it to fail with intermittent open internal connections. Short FFCs are a known failure area in equipment that use them if repeated flexing occurs during their operation. In the Apollo and Saturn, the Sanyo laser mechanism contains NO daughter PCB and hence the laser FFC to main PCB is something in the neighborhood of 125-150mm long (basically hangs straight down instead of curved into a "U" shape) before it attaches to the main PCB.
I bought the Jupiter's FFC on eBay (bit expensive, but he'll take -20% offers) from:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FLAT-FLEX-C...379?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ddb6c173
and it was an EXACT replacement. You have a different Sony laser in the original Planet than that in the Planet 2000/Jupiter 2000, so you'll have to verify the FFC's pin count and pitch plus total cable length.
Dale
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Awesome, thanks Dale. I have to say that particular cable possibly being the source of the issue is something that crossed my mind, but I didn't know how to go about determining which one to buy as a replacement. As you seem to already know, the one inside the Planet is long, and therefore folded and unfolded every time the chassis has been opened and closed. When I unplugged it, I noticed that one of the flat metal pins on the end of the cable that plugs into the transport was bent sideways. Since the CD player seemed to work fine after that anyway, I thought I'd gotten away with it, or perhaps that particular pin isn't used. But now that you say this...
Quagh
Super Member
Patience my friend.
Oh and I forgot to mention: Not long after I got the Planet working again, I found the remote, which I'd thought was totally lost during a move a year and a half ago! I should have taken a picture of the remote, it's such a weird design.
I actually found the remote rather pleasant myself. Not at all like your typical remote. The colored buttons help tremendously IMO.
Hey doesn't the Planet use the Sony KSS-240A laser? Those are still available for like $26 bucks.
Here's a cool site I found that lists various players Optics and D/A Converters. Fairly handy.
D/A & Optics Converter Site
Last edited:
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Nice thanks. Yeah the Planet remote is far from the worst I've encountered.
Art K.
The Voodoo You Do!
Now that is funny, Dave. Hopefully you can fix it pretty easily.
Melepuaakai
New Member
Hello All, a short note to say that the Planet diode fix has cured my ailing Jupiter transport which seems to have the identical PCB layout as the Planet save the ADC.
Very many thanks for the solution Mr. Lin.
Cheers,
Trevor
Very many thanks for the solution Mr. Lin.
Cheers,
Trevor
