NAD 517 CD changer skipping on playback

At first I thought for sure it was a laser but the laser looks OK.

[@spidernam]

Hey man, just fixed my old cd player with a simple grease up. Saved me a couple hundred dollars with your video. Thanks!

[@Comascape]

Thank you!!! My Sony 5-disc changer was skipping badly on the first song of almost every cd. I just cleaned and greased it again and everything seems to be back to 100%

[@ciprianwinerElectronicManiac]

I like the older cd players because they have the adjustment pots and you can almost always compensate for the weakness of the laser or other components. The newer ones with no adjustments other than laser current they usually just give an No Disc error and there's nothing you can do but to replace the whole pick up itself. Cheers :)

[@mdzacharias]

This model, and the identical Marantz CC-52, were notorious for shorted spindle motors. Sometimes on 1/2 it's rotation, sometimes both halves.

[@alphabeets]

Love these videos. Anyone else play a drinking game and take a drink when he explains about the copyright strike. You'll definitely get a drink or two per video!

[@12voltvids]

No strikes here because I don't play more than 8 seconds. That's the rule.

[@user-cc8rk8tm9r]

Thanks for your impressive contents, what kind of grease should I buy ?

[@breezebenitses397]

Your videos are great. What type of grease did you use please? My cd player skips and jumps from the start. I have cleaned the laser from one of your other posts. Thanks. Stay safe

[@cedriclamarre3178]

"if I wack it hard enough BANGGGG" lmao great video and explanation thanks a lot!

[@annierenard5954]

thank you

[@lpd400]

Was u able to read my last post on your last vid mate keep up the good work love ur vids

[@ambientblue-eyedmonkey8849]

8:49 Hi, could you tell me what a tracking balance pot does? and Focus balance too. Because I've recently replaced a laser on my Kenwood CD player and it was starting to skip from somewhere around 5th track on a lot of CDs, first few tracks it played ok, so I've marked all pots original positions, I had 4 of them, Focus gain, tracking gain and tracking, focus balance, the only one which fixed the skipping was Tracking balance pot, moving it a few clicks clockwise eliminated skipping on all CDs. So I wonder what it does. While tweaking TG it was apparent that it increases tracking sensitivity, while tweaking Focus gain it gave me impression that it adjusts CD spindle motor speed, or laser focus sensitivity and in turn laser adjusts spindle speed, I don't now how it works, but the only one that right away fixed skipping was Tracking balance pot, so I wonder what it does and why it fixed it. As far as I've read about it, it suppose to adjust symmetry between upper and lower waveform pattern, how does that translate to skipping from 5th track on, if that balance is off? and is it necessary adjustment for all laser replacements on units like mine which don't do any automatic calibration? I don't have an oscilloscope, so I can't see what those pots are doing exactly, but I'll definitely gonna get one, that can do an eye patterns, as soon as my financial situation allows. Thanks for reading.

[@glennfeldt2009]

🇸🇪Are the trim pots susceptible to corrosion?

[@zx8401ztv]

Well done, another old unit lives another day :-D Those pesky capacitors in the control system may have drifted too, we know how you really love capacitors He he :-D I still wonder if the emission of c.d lasers becomes impure in some way, the laser emission amplitude can be adjusted but that often does not help. A new laser assembly often fixes it. C.d players die too easy for my liking.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

would it be possible to take a LASER pen apart to get the LASER module to replace the LASER module in the CD player.

[@SteveHolsten]

I wouldn't have dreamed the tracking would be that much controlled by electronic settings.

[@reddoggames3011]

I have a similar problem with my disc player. It's a Sony MHC GX450. Any idea what I can do

[@bobof673]

Great Video thank you. Can you say something about the laser intensity adjustment? I understand that the laser output deteriorates over time, some Cd players have a small pot on the optics unit to adjust this. If this is adjusted, does it increase the eye pattern peak to peak amplitude. It would be great to know when to adjust the laser intensity and when not to, and rather adjust tracking and focus only. linked to that, what is the ideal eye pattern peak to peak voltage to strive for, with a original factory CD? 1000mV i understand?

[@tacofortgens3471]

I think cd pkayers till 91 yes, after that its all electronically controlled

[@williamthumperledford741]

How can I get in touch with you about my 5 disk changer ? Possible on Facebook or by phone .

[@taiwanbirdman]

May I ask what kind of grease did you put in? Where can I get it? (I did not get it from the video...)

[@wdfaws8124]

I wish you lived near me. I have the exact same problem with my 515. I do have a new lazer in it.

[@12voltvids]

It's a pretty common problem. I took the gear off, and cleaned all grease off with alcohol. Then just lightly touched the plastic with the hot iron to fuse the crack shut

[@wayneg296]

👍👍😎✌️

[@hakanozkeles2984]

SUPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[@maxk6173]

What oscilloscope would be required to check Tracking gain and E/F balance? Will 10MHz Bandwidth, 50MSa/s Sampling Rate be enough? Or higher bandwidth/sampling rate required?

[@12voltvids]

Not doing that with a digital scope. A 10mhz analog scope if more than enough for that.

[@martinlucero9594]

DEAR FRIEND… I am not familary with technicals problems at CD players.. I saw all your video.. I wonder if I understood good.. There exist: TRACKING ERROR, AF OR EF BALANCE and TRACKING GAIN on this CD PLAYER??? I want to know if I understood your english to search more info ration about this three controls , but to do that, I need first know these control are named. Regards.

[@rarbiart]

if you have an oscilloscope at hand, why don't you take the eye patterns as a reference, everthing is in there, for nearly all adjustments. the clearer and sharper the eye pattern gets, the better the tracking is, the cleaner the optics, the better the the rf amp gain etc... as it is the last analogue signal before it's in the 1/0 detection for DA converter. first get the thing playing at at all, then run through the adjustment pots again and again and again. if the eye pattern looks perfect, then zoom in at the "hair cross" and get that perfect. If it comes to ray adjustment (sending diode current) of course you have to be careful not to blow it. for this you need a different test paoint and probably an additional meter (and follow the service manual)

[@12voltvids]

I did look at the eye pattern, and it was fine. I just didn't show that on camera. I went to the tracking error test point as that is where the error was. The eye pattern you tune for maximum gain but tracking errors don't show up nearly as well as the RF output or "eye" pattern looks at the 4 main detectors, whereas the TE test point looks at the side spot detectors. You want to minimize the side spot detectors from being hit. Looking at the eye the signal may dip slightly on miss tracking, but with the TE test, the errors show up as spikes. Much easier to see, and set up. Eye pattern is more for focus gain, not tracking gain, and I didn't touch focus as there was plenty of signal. There was much time that the camera was not rolling as I would have had to cut the sound anyway.

[@THEtechknight]

I never could get a scope to look at an eye pattern properly. there must be some special way to set it up? I have a CDP-101 I need to realign after rebuilding both servo amp sections. Never got around to finishing that job. Then I have a Pioneer P-D70 that I have to build a new output filter for on one channel. it gets noisy until I squeeze the metal can. its an epoxy filled can so I cant fix it.

[@12voltvids]

The eye pattern is the RF output. I have never had luck seeing it on a DSO, but on a good wideband analog scope it is clear as day.

[@kevito666]

I've been working on restoring one of these forever. I managed to get everything to work on it except for what control system controls the laser motor position. When I turn it on, it just slams the laser all the way to the inside of the disk and starts grinding the gear up. IC101 is really, really hot, so I think that may have something to do with motor control, but no manual to work from :(

[@12voltvids]

It is probably the ic that is burning up. Internal short.

[@kevito666]

@@12voltvids aye, probably keeping the motor on all the time, will see if i can replace it, hard in these times though :(

[@darinb.3273]

@@kevito666 just curious did you clean the switch the tells the logic circuit the the laser is in the home position? If it doesn't signal the micro processor the logic circuits are attempting to get it to the home position ... until that happens the sled motor will stay on till the laser assembly is at the start of the CD player (reads the TOC) in other words if the home switch doesn't signal the micro processor it will keep trying to make it go home LOL

[@kevito666]

@@darinb.3273 I suspect its the IC as the switch seems to be working. As soon as the device is powered on it starts the motor without any input from me.

[@Casualfulltime]

How much grease? 😂

[@djmexxo]

Hi. Is this problem similar to a skipping, jump to a different track and continue playing?

[@12voltvids]

Jumping forward is usually something in the gears causing it to stick. The servo cranks up the power to move the sled and it breaks free and overshoots.

[@djmexxo]

@@12voltvids thank you for your fast respond. Any fixture recommendations?

[@rogerturner1881]

i have one of the last cd players since 2003 the TECHNICS PG 04. I play the cd's and every time the cd skips within the track, i sent it away for service and its much better but it still skips on the first few tracks [2-4] then its ok. Mine doesn't have those adjustable pots. Could it be the laser? i'm thinking of renewing the laser.greetings from Athens Greece

[@12voltvids]

More than likely the spindle motor. Rcd the speed starts fast and slows down as the disk plays. When bearings wear they can resonate at certain rpm and cause the disk to resonate enough to knock the tracking off.

[@rogerturner1881]

@@12voltvids would replacing the laser solve the problem?

[@12voltvids]

@@rogerturner1881 not if it is the motor causing the problem.

[@arthurharrison1345]

The Onkyo CD player I purchased is a great disappointment. Right out of the box, playing brand-new commercial CDs, the thing skips with even the slightest vibration. I contacted their support group, and they were completely indifferent. I'll never buy this brand again.

[@12voltvids]

Unbelievable, after review they released the advertiser unfriendly, and blocked the second upload where I commented on it.

[@ryans413]

People still use CDs lol

[@12voltvids]

Apparently so. Yes many people over the age of 30 use CDs. The over 40 or 50 crowd even more so. For that matter U still listen to CDs in my 200 disk changer in the living room. First of all it sounds superior to any mp3 crap, and no I don't fall for vinyl like the wannabe hipsters do. Paying 40.00 for a record is far too rich for me, and I can't be bothered cleaning the record and putting the needle on. I do have a turntable, actually several, and I have some old records from back in the 70's but I have put them all on CD and listen to my compilations on CD. Much more convenient.

[@BeachTechPC]

Who listens to mp3's anymore when we have lossless encoders like flac. I'm a 30 something and can't stand the sound of mp3's. All my CD's are now days is just backup media lol.

[@BlankBrain]

I buy them at Goodwill for $1.99 and RIP them to FLAC. So, yes people still use CDs.

[@BlankBrain]

One of my goals is to build an ADC using a PCM4222 and RIP my vinyl to FLAC. Then I won't have to worry about degradation of my media or playback equipment. It's now become possible to build DACs that can reproduce the original impulse response.

[@12voltvids]

You would be surprised how many still listen to MP3. Myself I have been using flac for many years for my archive, but I use mp3 in the car as the in dash infotainment system doesn't support flac. For the car high bit rate mp3 sounds fine.