Kitchen Table Electronics Repair: Denon DCD-920 CD Player
Dec.18, 2010 in
Repair Tips
Sometimes things just fix themselves. Whether or not it’s enough to stick and stay fixed varies…some devices need more convincing than others. I think the biggest problem here was the long time this player sat around without being used. It looks to have been a very high quality unit and would easily exceed the performance of some modern high end CD players. Anyway, never underestimate what a good car ride and some cleaning can fix…!
Tags: back, Car Ride, CD, Cd Player, Cd Players, collinsup, DCD-920, Denon, electronics, Electronics Repair, fix, Good Car, High Quality, Kitchen, Kitchen Repair, Kitchen Table, Long Time, Maintenance, percussive, player, Quality Unit, Repair, Repair Cd, response, Sat, shout, table, test, uxwbill
July 29th, 2010 at 8:53 am
I wonder if it’s a regionally available or not always stocked product? I called around to a few Wal-Mart stores here and nobody there had ever heard of it.
You know, I just had an idea… (goes to the other browser window, looks up Wal-Mart, uses location given on your channel, searches…) Oh, well, that didn’t turn up anything. Got a manufacturer name?
July 29th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Okay…some more looking later…I don’t think that’s the stuff I’m talking about. The stuff that I use is actually a tuner/control cleaner and lubricant, not just an air duster. For all my air dusting needs, I have an air compressor with a clean and DRY output.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:57 am
@uxwbill You should try to hunt down a receiver with an optical or coaxial input. The sound quality is superb over analog. I find the optical sounds better than the co-ax, but that could just be my receiver there. I even have an older(early 90s) Sony Mobile ES 10 disc CD changer in one car that has an optical output, but the head unit doesn’t have an optical input.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Maybe so, but they’re the way I like to buy music. I don’t mind compressed digital music (as long as the encoder that processed it did a good job, since I can hear the shortcomings of the bad ones or low bit rates) but I do like exploring the rest of the disc for music I haven’t heard. Plus, I get to decide at what bitrate it will be imported.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:59 am
I do have one, it’s just that I have never thought to use it. Maybe I should.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am
@uxwbill i have an old(possibly early or mid 60s) General Electric AM only clock radio that is a vac tube unit but has a PCB in it. My other vac tube console is a PCB unit as well, but it’s not one of the better quality or higher wattage ones, yet it has Hitachi tubes in it.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:03 am
I went looking for a price catalog and didn’t find one. My guess is that it would have been several hundred (probably around three to five) minimum.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:15 am
@uxwbill Hey Bill, I sent you the link to the company. Also, try looking around the blank cd/DVD area of your local Walmart that’s where it would be.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:28 am
my playstation 2 did exactly the same thing, it wouldn’t read any DVD’s then it got knocked around a little while i was trying to see what was wrong with it. then it suddenly worked!
July 29th, 2010 at 10:08 am
@uxwbill i’d love to use it daily if i could….problem is it belongs to my dad and he would flip if he knew i even got it out. its a shame, that thing deserves to be used, it’s in mint condition! i’d use it over my RCA 5 cd changer i have, i just love the cool retroness to it
July 29th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
@uxwbill Atleast 1 video using it pl0x
July 29th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
I happened to find a Denon DCD-1300 CD player sitting on the shelf in the thrift store today. I believe it was dated September 1986 on the back. I passed on it because it didn’t come with the remote, and my 1985 Sony CD player does a fine job, but it certainly looked like a high quality piece of equipment.
July 30th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
What exactly do you want to see about it?
July 30th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
You’re right…that is too bad! Hopefully someday he’ll change his mind and let it out, because it won’t do any good to keep it locked away.
July 31st, 2010 at 1:06 am
@uxwbill Well, I see you edited out taking apart the CD Player (My guess is because u needed 2 hands) with 2 hands we could see the entire process
July 31st, 2010 at 11:18 am
Not as much that as “never filmed it”. I don’t have enough hands to do that and run the camera, but if I’d find the tripod…that might work. In any case, it’s not hard…four screws at the top (three, because one was stripped
) and it lifted right off.
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:38 am
hey bill the funniest thing happened today. I came across a technics SL-p118 cd player dated march of 87 on the “broken items” shelf at a pawn shop. i picked it up for 4 dollars. When i brought it home, it was working perfectly and played CD-R perfectly.
What was really cool about it though was it had a “High Speed Linear Tracking System” which as far as i could tell uses some sort of solenoid rather then a motor and gears, to move the laser assembly, I was amazed at how fast it gave me the
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:39 am
@edison700 tracking info and skip from the last song to the first song. It was about 5-7 seconds faster then a fairly new and nice cd player i have.
Maybe I’ll post a video response of it sometime
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Cool find! It probably just needed some use like this one did. The linear tracking system is a “voice coil” drive similar to what is used in speakers. It can move very quickly. I have a similar Technics unit but the laser pickup appears to be dying.
August 12th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
most old CD Players have 2 common problems.
- worn spindle motor (slow spinup, sometimes requiring to manually give the disc a spin to start reading. cheap to replace)
- gummed up laser sled mechanics (takes forever to skip (many) tracks. just re-lubricate)
if it’s a really worn player, the laser unit is possibly weak. if it’s the very common Sony KSS-150 or KSS-210 (those are compatible & interchangeable), you can still get those new & pretty cheap on ebay (if you know what you’re doing)
August 16th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
@edison700
Your Technics CD player does use a motor to move the optical pickup back and forth; it’s a linear motor.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
can u show me how to soder new channel on my car cd player please i need help
September 1st, 2010 at 11:27 pm
You are very groovy dude UXWBILL
November 28th, 2010 at 6:08 am
wondering if you know what my problem is? i have a denon 3 disc 3 draw cd player! now i have cleaned the lens but the disc spins but it’s hit’ n’ miss weather it reads the cd! sometimes it will play the cd all the way through & sometimes skip & jump!!!hope you can help as i luv my denon cd player!!!
November 28th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@carswesty I would suspect a bad connection, intermittent electronic failure, slipping or intermittent laser sled drive. Out of all of those, check the connections (remove and reinsert them) and examine the sled drive. I’d not expect that you will find a bad spindle motor, as once they’re running, they usually remain functional. It’s startup time that will show most problems.