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Posted by Paul S on
10-12-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d A while back (I thought) I was having trouble with my Accustic Arts Drive 1 CD transport. It was skipping and messing up on CDs I wanted to hear. Since I normally listen to LPs, it took me a while to dedicate the time and pay attention to exactly how the transport was messing up. It turned out that some CDs worked OK, and some did not. Then I remembered that the CDs that were not working now on the AA transport had all been dragged by me out to the car and used there in the car CD player. When I carefully cleaned the problem CDs, most of the problems with the AA transport went away, but some of the messed-up CDs still would not play well on the AA transport. They all played "fine" in the car. Now my question is, why will the "crappy" car CD player "track" dirty CDs "better" than the Accustic Arts Drive 1?
Add this to the pile of the Mysteries of Hi-Fi.
Paul S
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Posted by ArmAlex on
10-14-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d The crappy one reads because it's error correcting mechanism is crappy also!
Armen
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Posted by ArmAlex on
10-15-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d Crappy Cd player plays dirty CDs because it's error correction mechanism is crappy also
Armen
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Posted by rowuk on
10-15-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d
Some drives do not get along with certain reflective surfaces. I had a Philips that played just about everything. Then I bought a Yamaha and all of the "gold" colored CDs would not play. I think that your dirt issue is not the real problem. If the CD was made on a writer instead of from a stamp, it could be the brand of the blank.
 Paul S wrote: | A while back (I thought) I was having trouble with my Accustic Arts Drive 1 CD transport. It was skipping and messing up on CDs I wanted to hear. Since I normally listen to LPs, it took me a while to dedicate the time and pay attention to exactly how the transport was messing up. It turned out that some CDs worked OK, and some did not. Then I remembered that the CDs that were not working now on the AA transport had all been dragged by me out to the car and used there in the car CD player. When I carefully cleaned the problem CDs, most of the problems with the AA transport went away, but some of the messed-up CDs still would not play well on the AA transport. They all played "fine" in the car. Now my question is, why will the "crappy" car CD player "track" dirty CDs "better" than the Accustic Arts Drive 1?
Add this to the pile of the Mysteries of Hi-Fi.
Paul S |
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Posted by Paul S on
10-15-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d Hmmm... The AA uses Philips Pro 2 mechanical guts. Most of the discs that would not play played fine after I cleaned them. Various cheapo CDs my brother burned for me over many years played fine, and one RVG (Rudy van Gelder) jazz CD would not play at all after cleaning (and I think it played OK before I cleaned it!). I played silver and gold, and maybe a couple of other colors; I'll have to check that more systematically. That car is pretty old, so who knows what other grief it inflicted on any CDs it played. Still, it continues to play the damn discs! At least I think so. Remember, I still haven't bothered to set this up rigorously, with controls...
Paul S
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Posted by xandcg on
11-17-2016
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fiogf49gjkf0d I always had very luck with Plextor CD/DVD drives (sound-wise) but they had disappeared of the PC market, but seem to come back now:
http://www.goplextor.com/Product/Detail/PX-891SAF#/Features
I would buy one now but I need to import it and there are a big mess going on my country customs services now, and it would take a while to normalize.
Cheers!
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Posted by Paul S on
01-07-2024
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Finally took on my mis-tracking CD transport, an Accustic Arts Drive 1 (Philips CD Pro 2 drive unit). I had looked online and I had the feeling my problem, at its root, might be caked grease on the optical reader rails, as I have had the thing for some time and not used it a lot. Be warned that this job takes steady hands and a clear head, which I pretty much lacked for years, but, if to judge by results, my nerves have gotten good enough again to give it a go. I took apart the box and pulled out the entire Philips CD Pro 2 unit, then I took the unit apart enough to get to the optical reader rails, which were, indeed, gunky. You might use DuPont Krytox 204 grease, but I used G96 gun oil, which I used to clean the rails as best I could without taking the optical reader off the rails. And that did the trick! Going back to early symptoms, when some discs played but other would not, I theorize that the CD Pro can probably read all the discs if it can travel freely on its rails. FYI, I probably should make another post to trumpet Dawn Power Wash for cleaning CDs, as it works great. In fact, I plan to try it on dirty LPs, too.
Back to the Philips CD Pro mechanism, I kept thinking, these things have been used for juke boxes and at radio stations for many years now, so I was slow to act on the notion that the optical reader itself had crapped out. And I am glad I tried the fix I did.
Paul S
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