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CD Player Ticking

audiofred

audiofred

Active Member
G'day All,
I noticed there is not a discussion group for CD audio. (Maybe I missed it?)

My CD player is a dual player unit for DJing. I'm using the model you see in the pic for my shortwave radio music b'cast. I finally have been able to notice a ticking problem and a long delay reading and cueing up the CD's when they are loaded in any of the two players.
Most of the CD's used are archived music from vinyl records. The best cuts. I'll call this collection of CD's "My Hot Cuts". There are a total of 101 cd's of rare and hard-to-find rock from the 70's, each having approx 13 tracks. On Apogee Gold CD's. Very Pricey now to purchase these Gold blanks.

A lot of the cheaper blanks, purchased over the years EXCEPT for MEMOREX and SONY Suprema, and the Apogee Gold blanks, cause this long ticking and reading.
Could someone on this forum explain what actually takes place in a CD player when the disc is first loaded? What would this ticking sound be on some of the CD's and not on the above mentioned blanks or Commercially produced Albums??? Is the player looking for a starting point by "Ticking" the CD in increments looking for a "start point"????
Thank you
Fred
 

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If the ticking sound is mechanical, it could be that the focus/tracking gain is greater on a disc with a poorer reflective layer. The gold sputtered disc might have better reflective qualities that might make the servo's 'complain' less. If the problem seems disc related, I thinks it's going to be servo gain related. If it happens on all discs, I'd think it's a disc motor on it's way out.
 
When you load a CD into a player, first it does a focus search. When the microprocessor gets the focus ok signal, it starts the disc motor spinning. Table of contents is now read. When the tracking and focus servos are locked and the data is readable, the player starts reading the disc.
Open the player and see if the disc is spinning when you hear the ticking. If not, you are hearing the focus search. The player may need adjustment or the laser could be going bad, or the disc could have low reflectivity.
If what you hear is more of a sizzling sound, but the disc isn't turning, give the disc a slight push and see if it starts. If so, the disc motor is bad.
If the ticking is hear only with the disc spinning, look for signs of something rubbing. The disc chuck could be rubbing against the support arm. This can happen when the suspension on the CD mech starts to sag.
 
I have opened the bottom unit that carries the transports. When a disc is loaded the "ticking sound" is the mechanism incrementing the disc in small movements.
When it finds whatever its looking for, the disc starts spinning in the opposite direction and I see the readout of how many tracks/total time on the disc and it cues up for track 1. This ticking is only during the "search or focus mode"
The blanks mentioned on my original post and commercially produced albums, there is no ticking or searching and I get an immediate readout and cue.
This machine is a little over 10yrs old and been used regularly for my weekely radio show since 1998. Possibly an age issue is creeping up on these machines and they're getting a little picky about playing lesser quality blanks.

Those Apogee Gold blanks are commanding a very high price nowadays. $150 for 100ea?? I was getting them for half that price in 2001 from a music store in Wash DC.

There seems to be quite an interest in sound quality or sonic differences from a Gold coating or even the newer Black CD's....whew!!! Too much for me!! I'll just do a CD copy and use the Sony Supremas for now for the 20 or so discs that are giving me "ticking" problems.
Your responses are intersting and very informative. I never knew there was so much going on in there.

Fred
 
Well, DennyDog You bring up a very logical solution to this. Instead of spending $400 for another mechanical thing that will wear out, invest in a digital approah with a hard drive type storage of all of this music. I use software called "audio byte" for my intros and outros and station id's. Why not expand on this and dump my CD library on that HDD too?? HDD's are getting very cheap. All of my radio stuff is in, what looks like, a cart rack and I can just click on the selection and it plays.
I'll check the digital format and music server forum for more ideas and solutions that won't break the bank.
BTW this is a radio production in my studio at home. There is no lugging CD's around.
Fred
 
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