CD/DVD/SACD Player reliability???

[Shakey]

Is it me or has everyone had similar experiences?
Just about every CD or DVD player I have owned has eventually developed some drive problems. I haven't bought a SACD player because I fear more of the same. And it causes me to think twice about ever dumping my analog front end, that and other considerations.

If memory serves the decks I had problems with were from the very first:
1) Nak OMS-7 (this deck was probably ok but a relay made noise which no one ever could hear but me.
2) Nak OMS-7II (this was a replacement but could not fast forward without jumping all over the place)
3) CAL Delta/Sigma (the drive went back three times before they found some broken piece by which time I had had it, plus the DAC went bad out of the box, chattering relay, and always sounded bloated)
4) Radio Shack CD-3400/SF UJB/SF TRANS DAC-1 ( this combo worked pretty much without exception until the Shack decided it needed a shove every once in a while to get started, I actually liked the sound of this setup but eventually sent it on its way)
5) Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 (my current machine, sounds great yet every once in a while it has problems recognizing a disc. This usually clears up with a power recycling. What puzzles me is that it usually does this with discs which are either defective, dirty, or a CDR made by others and will continue until I drain the power.)

Anyway this has been my experience which at times has caused me to take a dim view of anything digital.
Anyone else experience similar problems?

edit:
4 1/2) Pioneer DVD 414 (broke twice, first a laser wouldn't read CDs then the power supply fizzed out. replaced with 444)

[-=Rudy=-]

Heh...my first CD player was a first-generation Hitachi, the exact same unit Denon put their name on. Looks cool as hell, but won't play a CD anymore to save its life.

I had a Sony (the first Discman) that worked for awhile, but when I got my next good "home" deck, it was a Nak OMS-7. It developed problems, got a new laser, STILL had problems, gave up on it.

I've gone through numerous Sony CD players that lasted just enough past the warranty so I couldn't get them fixed for free. Although I had an MDP-333 CD/LD player that I had in for repairs three times, and is now pretty much DOA again. (I've killed at least half a dozen Sony laser-based products...I'm not a fan, as you can tell. ;) ) A home CD-R deck I have, I picked up recently very cheap at the Sony outlet. No problems so far, but I'm sure it will be expendable like all the other Sony crap I've bought that has died. I have two other CD units...one works when it wants to, the other is used so rarely it still runs OK.

Excellent luck with my four Pioneer units. One's the universal player, a DV-45A that is one of the better components I've bought. DVL-700 Laserdisc/DVD player--functionally and mechanically perfect, but suffers from outdated firmware and chokes on a few CDs. (And since it was a demo, it could probably stand a laser replacement.) CLD-D406, not a problem. I also have an old top-loader (we're talking NO chapter advance, no remote, no Dolby Digital...this sucka is OLD) that still works to this day. Oops...also have a 100-CD changer that never has given me trouble.

Magnavox CD changer (magazine type) still runs great after 13 years. Made, of course, by Philips, co-inventor of the CD.

I've had two Panasonic CD portables. I killed one in the car (armrest fell on it while it was on and the car was parked...burned out the motor), but the second has MP3 playback, still pretty much brand new, works great.

[lv70smusic]

I just learned from a friend last night that the first cd player I bought is still working, nearly 20 years after I bought it. I passed it along to him over a decade ago when I got a different player and he has since passed it along to someone else. The disc drawer mechanism works erratically (the reason I wanted to get rid of it in the first place) but discs play just fine. It was Sony's first truly inexpensive home cdp, but I cannot recall the model number.

[Dave]

Actually Shakey...no. I've never had a problem with my Sony and I've owned it for over 5 years now. Anything I throw at it plays flawlessly with no "weird noises". BTW it's the XA-20ES. The only one minor thing that happens is a low-volume single beep when recognition happens. No complaints from me though.

[sharedon]

I had a Phillps Expanium portable, for playing MP-3's on CD... it died one year to the week after I'd bought it! Grrr.

[therockman]

My experience has been favorable....so far. My first CD player was a Kenwood that I bought in 1985, and my Dad still uses without ever having been repaired for anything. My second CD player was a Pioneer combo Laserdisc player bought in 1989, it still works fine. I went DVD in 1999 with a Panasonic, it stills works perfect, no PERFECT. I move alot, my machines have been to Oregon, Louisianna, Texas, Minnesota, California and New Mexico. When ever I get the urge to move-on, I just throw my stuff in a moving truck and go. So my machines have seen a little action, but every single optical disc player that I have ever owned still works fine.

[Strabo]

Originally posted by Dave
BTW it's the XA-20ES. The only one minor thing that happens is a low-volume single beep when recognition happens. No complaints from me though.

What's up with that? My Sony does that too although, I've only noticed it when it hits the end of a disc. I am probably making to much noise when the disc starts to notice it. I also noticed it on someone elses Sony so I figured it was just the models we are using.

No problems here with the three different (Sony) digital players that I've had over the last 10 years.

[Dave]

Originally posted by Strabo


What's up with that? My Sony does that too although, I've only noticed it when it hits the end of a disc. I am probably making to much noise when the disc starts to notice it. I also noticed it on someone elses Sony so I figured it was just the models we are using.

No problems here with the three different (Sony) digital players that I've had over the last 10 years.
Hmmm, don't know exactly Kyhl. I've never noticed it at the end of a CD, only when I first load it.

[Shakey]

I forgot I owned a Sony portable. It was a second generation player, forgot the number, but it lasted years with my friend before biting the dust. And he had a family of children at the time who abused the you know what out of it.
This is not what I am talking about though, my home players have been relilable to the extent that I am still reluctant to plunk any serious money into this format.
I know the Sonic Frontiers is not chump change, even at the price I paid used, and I wonder what is it's (ocasional) problem.
It, digital playback pieces, seems to be more likely to foll up. Maybe because it is a more complicated piece but...

[Gary]

I've had a Technics 5 disc, HK 5 disc, Sony 775 and now a Sony 777. Never had any problems with them.....

(fingers crossed)

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

I've had alot of bad luck w/ SACD players lately. Oade Brothers tells me i'm the first one to ever have a defective XA777ES. When i asked for a replacement, they told me some son of a nauga just bought the last one! :D

Kill the nauga,
Jeffrey :)

[Gary]

But the Naugas are happy, Jeffrey! Isn't that what counts in the end? :innocent:

:)

[triple]

I have had a lot of trouble with digital players. The CAL DX-2 CD player I bought in 1999 had to be serviced in 2000. Its laser assembly was replaced at a cost of $160 plus labour, $240 in total. It is now 2003 and the player is showing the same symptoms - would not recognise CDR's, and sometimes even standard CD's. Funny though, there have not been problems with gold discs, but there is sizzling noise wherever high frequency music signal is on the menu - cannot listen to Miles Davis and his muted trumpet these days.
There is no way I will go into replacing the laser assembly again - I am going to buy a new player.

Similar thing happened to my Sony car mini disc player. Its laser assembly had to be replaced after 3 years - $180 out of my pockets. Exactly 6 months later (just when the warranty expired), it would not recognize some MD-s. The same discs are played without a problem on the (Sony) home deck.
While waiting at the Sony sevice center (the car player had to returned to them 3 times as it was still not working well), I saw lots of broken DVD, gameboy and MD players being brought for servicing and they all had to have their laser assembly repaired, as confirmed by the service center's owner.

Interestingly, I know a lot of people who have ancient CD players that always worked well, including my Panasonic CD walkman.

BTW, the reported longevity of Naim CD players may have something to do with the fact that they use there own proprietary software for CD transports in their players. This in practice means that the assembly will read TOC only at the start of /before playing a disc and not in between tracks.

I totally understand your pain, Shakey.

Regards,
Goran

[Shakey]

Triple,
You mention the Naim, I really considered one of these back when the CD 3.5 came out. The retailer, who claims to be close to the people at Naim, they distribute out of Chicago, told me they would never go to HDCD but they did.
Otherwise I really did like they way they sound and I believe you are onto something regarding their approach to buying other suppliers off the shelf parts and the coincidence of related problems.
I am considering parting with my SFCD-1 while they still demand a good buck and had been thinking of the Sony XA 777 SE since it sounds like they do a good job with Red Book as well as play the SACDs.
But a NAIM might be a good choice.

[Blair G.]

My original player was a Yamaha CD-X1 way back in '85 I think.
Then a Sony CDP507ES for ten years.
Now an Arcam for two years
None ever gave me any grief.
Toshiba DVD, fine.
Pioneer Laserdisc has acted up but I use it so rarely now I don't care