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My MCD201 Review

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Thanks Ron C...
The dealer has been extreamly generious in support.

I will post the positive results.
Best regards
ed
 
As long as the offending CD is a normal CD and not run over by a truck the MCD201 should play it. If it is a burned disk, dual disk, hybrid disk or other non standard CD, SACd or MP3 disk then all bets are off. If you only have one CD in your collection that does not play or skips that is a suspect CD.

Thanks again,
Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
If you only have one CD in your collection that does not play or skips that is a suspect CD.
Click to expand...
Does that hold if the said CD plays everywhere else, including other macs?

BTW, when a CD skips, one shoud check if there is a "compact disc" logo on the cover-art...

Thanks ron.
 
We have CDs that play in the MCD201 and not any other player we have made including the MCD7009, and DVD players. If a disk is out of spec it will fall to one end or the other of the individual laser pick ups focal range. This is why we see the variability in disks.
We always like to know the title of a problem disk so we can add it to our test collection.

thanks,
Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
We always like to know the title of a problem disk so we can add it to our test collection.
Click to expand...
In my case, my "worse" CD's are Steve Vai's Real Illusions Reflections, and a few SACD's like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (sometimes has trouble skipping to the last song for instance). There were many many more before. Looks like CD-R's are all good now since the last update. Although, I'm not sure if the last update did bad or good on SACD's because I didn't notice any SACD problems at first.

I think loading time has gone down, unless I'm only getting use to it.. can we call that user-break-in :scratch2: :D
 
no consistency

I can only speak for myself but the skipping has no consistency. :no:
The same CD that plays beautifully one day skips the next, then is OK again.
Not just one CD, this is true of several.
 
eljr,
If you are fortunate enough to have a local dealer, I would demand a replacement player. It sounds like your unit is really messed up. McIntosh and your dealer should replace the unit ASAP in my opinion, unless your dealer happens to offer in-house repair and can work on your player right away. Does anyone know who McIntosh buys the transport and laser assembly from for the MCD201? Then the question is WHY. Was the decision purely cost related as it appears to be or did the engineers somehow feel it was the best available for the application?
 
I just got off the phone with the dealer:

<<<<<<<<If you are fortunate enough to have a local dealer, I would demand a replacement player>>>>>>>>..

My dealer is top shelf and local, immediately offered a replacement.

<<<<<<<<McIntosh and your dealer should replace>>>>>>>>>..

They are going to replace. It will be a few weeks as the production schedule for them is slated for next week.

It's kind of ironic how quick and positive the response is from Mac yet knowing full well there were issues with this model let this unit, that completely failed on first play go out their door. :scratch2:
 
Yes, it also puzzles me that a unit like that could make it out the door unless yours was an early production unit. With McIntosh's lower production quantities and supposed world class quality assurance, I would assume that these players would see 100% inspection especially after the rash of issues they've seen. Obviously, one of the inspected functions is not CD play, probably because it would slow down the production line too much. This has to be just as frustrating to the folks at Mac because the problems are not straight forward and easily identifiable. I still believe that their must have been minimal reliability testing of this player's system components before it was released to production. It came back to bite them early and could still end up biting current MCD201 owners down the road. I, like many, wonder when mine will burp which does detract from the customer satisfaction area. Hope I can continue to enjoy the excellent sound for many years without any more issues.
 
Jay,

We play a series of disks in every player when it is on the assembly line. Before the transports are sent to the line they are hand calibrated in a test jig and all parameters adjusted. Any transport that failed this procedure is sent back to the vendor for analysis.
Did we perform all of these steps when we launched the machine? No we did not as the prototype transports played everything we put in them. The variance showed up when we went into production. We have also changed the operation software many times to improve load time and focusing of the laser.
The MCD201 has continued to be our best selling model. The vast majority of these are working fine. As time passes the machines with issues will be fixed and this thread will die. Every manufacturer will go through this process on a new transport design. If it a major company like say a Panasonic, they will ship as many players as we have sold in their first week of production. If any problems show up they will be addressed quickly due to the quantity sold and the engineering muscle that the huge companies have. If you search the web you will see that the big guys also have software update disks for their CD and DVD players.
This is the same for McIntosh and the MCD201. The MCD201 is the only player we have made that uses a transport unique to McIntosh. All of our other players used a known transport kit that was debugged before we used it.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
That brings the question to this.. What does the MCD201 transport do that couldn't have been acheived with a "debugged" transport like the one in the MVP861?

It's true that most players have update discs. My oppo dvd does. It can be downloaded from the web though.. ;)

Thanks ron
 
The MCD201 is planned for a longer production life than the DVD players which change every two years or so. It is also a CD, SACD, MP3 player not a DVD movie player..

thanks,
Ron-c
 
Thanks for the info Ron. Do you think McIntosh will continue to release products like this before fully debugging custom supplied components? This type of thing interests me because I'm a supplier quality engineer.
 
I frickin hope not! We did not believe we had a problem with the MCD201 when it was launched.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
I'm very very happy with my MCD201, listening 99.99% to CD (redbook and burned).
I've litened to 2 or 3 SACD since march and only CD, without any problem.
But the problem is I read this thread everytime something is posted, and it makes me fear sometimes!
Tonight, I remember someone posted about Dual CD and I wanted to test with the B.Springsteen latest album (Whe shall overcome/the Seeger Sessions) which is a Dual Disc.

I put it on the tray and pull Play: after a few seconds, no sound during 1 or 2 seconds, and then sound a few seconds and so on...and at O:53 mn, nothing more, and the display shows 0:53mn. I push Open, the display shows open but doesn't do it.
I press Off button, then On, and while Loading, again Open:the tray goes out.

I try again: right now plays the 8th song (on 13) and only 4 or 5 times without sound during 1 or 2 seconds.

Does the MCD201 play the Dual Disc?

I'm not obsessed with this experience, I do not always buy Dual Disc :I could burn this disc and try again, what do you think?

I don't have any problem with CD the rest of the time, and I hope I'll never have!

Jean-Marc, France.
 
jim777 said:
That brings the question to this.. What does the MCD201 transport do that couldn't have been acheived with a "debugged" transport like the one in the MVP861?
Click to expand...

Isn't this the whole "read the disc 4 times and sift out the errors before sending it to the DAC" thing?
 
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